Chief Minister Michael Gunner says the Territory’s borders will remain closed indefinitely, even as pressure mounts to reopen them to get the economy moving.

Over the weekend, the government said it would lift internal travel bans within the biosecurity zones on June 5 – two weeks ahead of schedule. But that could only be done, Mr Gunner said, because of the external borders remaining closed.

The Territory’s tourism and hospitality industry have been calling on the Gunner Government to provide a firm date to re-open the borders so Territorians can work toward that date.

Mr Gunner said on ABC Radio that re-opening the borders would be dependent upon coronavirus transmission rates throughout the rest of the country.

“We’re looking at community transmission rates down south and we want a comfort that there will be no seeding out of one of those community transmissions, to borrow a medical phrase, about it getting out and going to another spot and creating another cluster,” he said.

“We want to make that decision as soon as we can make that decision, but it’s got to be done at a point in time where the rest of Australia is as safe as us.”

He added that might not mean zero cases and that he would take advice from NT Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie.

“Zero would be the best number — if we’re flexible it might mean that community transmission is not at zero, but it’s happening in a way that it doesn’t give us the concern that it’s going to get across the border.”

But Mr Gunner offered no firm date for re-opening and said he wouldn’t know what June would look like for the NT until a few more days had passed.

Last week, Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly questioned why the borders of some states were still closed.

“From a medical point of view, I can’t see why the borders are still closed but, as I said, that’s for the states and territories themselves to decide when that time is right for them,” he said.

The tourism industry representatives called on Mr Gunner to lift border restrictions as of August 1, a date he has avoided being locked into.

Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce said he was concerned about the message Mr Gunner is sending the rest of the country.

“If we keep our borders closed for too long, we’re sending the message down south that we don’t want you to come up,” he said on Mix 104.9 Monday morning. “We don’t want you sick and infirm people to come up here and give us coronavirus, which is so far from the truth.”

“I think we were a bit of a tipping point in the language and we have to be very careful to make sure that when the border is open, we haven’t made a bitter taste in someone’s mouth, and they choose to go elsewhere.”

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