He cautioned:“There will always be cases,there will always be hospitalisations.”
NSW recorded 580 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and 11 deaths,including one person in their 50s and one person in their 60s. There were 812 people in hospital with COVID,with 163 in intensive care.
On international borders,Mr Perrottet said subject to the trial of seven-day home quarantine it made “little sense” for borders to remain closed and he had spoken to Prime Minister Scott Morrison about the issue.
“We are looking at that,” he said. “[Deputy Liberal leader] Stuart Ayres is running the pilot in NSW at the moment. This is something we are focused on,if we can bring back international travel faster we are certainly looking at that.”
Mr Perrottet had a phone hook up with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Saturday afternoon. Afterwards,a spokesman for Mr Andrews said the pair “had a very good discussion about borders opening up,health funding and fairer GST distribution”.
The removal of border restrictions for the ACT,NSW and Victoria well before Christmas was “definitely on the cards”,Mr Perrottet said,but would likely only happen once case numbers in Victoria stabilised. That state reported a record 1965 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
“NSW and Victoria have both said they’re committed to the national plan - we want to work through this as quickly as possible and we both understand that we’re not a bunch of penal colonies here,we’re one nation,and we should work together and open up,” Mr Perrottet said.
”Victoria has got its challenges at the moment,but their numbers will stabilise,their vaccination rate is picking up and I don’t see Victoria being too far behind NSW and then we’ll open up together and,importantly,open up to the world,and that’s essential for Australia because the NSW and Victorian economies,if they’re doing well. The country’s doing well.“
On the GST,Mr Perrottet singled out a deal struck by Mr Morrison in 2018 - which ensures no state can receive less than 70 cents for every dollar raised in their jurisdiction - for criticism.
That deal has led to Western Australia recording a strong $5.8 billion surplus in 2020-21,of which $1.5 billion was a GST top-up payment.
The resource-rich state is forecast to receive an extra $2.1 billion in money from the Commonwealth in 2021-22 - money the federal government will have to borrow to pay the state.
“This is exactly what we said was going to happen,that ultimately,the federal government would be borrowing money to distribute money to Western Australia,in circumstances where they are delivering surpluses,strong surpluses off the back of the mining boom,” Mr Perrottet said.
He said “we should always be open to tax reform”,such as broadening the base of the GST,so it applied to more goods and services,and raising the rate - but not under the current settings.
“In a post-pandemic world federal financial relations and taxation will need to be considered for change,” Mr Perrottet said. “But I would never advocate for an increase in or broadening of the GST under the current arrangements because the current arrangements are not fair.”
Mr Morrison last week dismissed calls for changes to the GST distribution arrangements during a radio interview in Perth.
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