Border Blockades Spark Australia’s Biggest Crisis in 120 Years
After Covid Zero, the country’s relaxation of strict measures has created a political nightmare for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, with states pitted against one another.
The coronavirus pandemic is creating perhaps the biggest crisis for Australia’s federal system since 1901, when six disparate British colonies in the so-called Great Southern Land united to win collective independence. The country has never been as divided as it is now.
State borders that were previously little more than photo opportunities are now fortified in a bid to keep out residents from Covid-hit places. Separated family members are defying police orders by hugging each other across the barricades, and some Australians have been denied the right to retrieve their children or visit dying relatives.