It is now 11 days until the Northern Territory opens its borders as the NT Government resists calls to exclude the whole of Victoria from the new border opening.
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Even NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner yesterday agreed keeping the border closed to Victoria would be "the easiest and most popular thing to do".
Mr Gunner said the NT will welcome visitors from anyone but identified coronavirus "hot spots" in Melbourne.
He agreed Territorians were scared with one response to his social media post on the issue highlighting continuing issues at Katherine where new arrivals do not appear to be quarantining.
One camper said her family was directly adjacent to another camper from interstate who were not following quarantine rules.
People must self-isolate for 14 days if arriving to approved caravan parks at the moment until July 17.
Mr Gunner said keeping the borders closed to everyone but Victoria is "not the smartest or the safest thing to do".
"Our hard borders for hot spots plan is something that works not just for today and tomorrow, but for next week, next month, next year - for as long as we need it," he said.
"And we will need it for a long time.
"It doesn't just apply to Victoria - it applies to all of Australia.
"We were fighting coronavirus at the beginning by locking it down nation to nation. Then we moved to locking it down state to state. Now we are locking it down suburb to suburb - fighting coronavirus street to street.
More reading: People still not following the rules.
"Today, the threat is parts of Melbourne - which is why our hard borders will stay in place for them.
"But down the track - it could be Sydney, it could be the Gold Coast, it could be Adelaide, it could be anywhere," he said.
Mr Gunner said pretending this is just a problem in Victoria is wrong, and it is dangerous, because it breeds complacency.
"We cannot predict what will happen in the future, we cannot assume the rest of Australia stays completely safe.
"So I am not going to give any state a free pass to the Territory just because they seem safe enough right now.
"We have the strongest system in the country because we have retained the ability to implement hard borders to stop arrivals from hot spots anywhere in the country, at any time they appear.
"So while other states and territories open up their borders to every jurisdiction without conditions, I am making it clear that the second a hot spot appears, anyone who has been there, is not welcome here.
"We have hard borders for hot spots. And hard borders means supervised quarantine, at your own expense.
"That's our plan - it's the best plan in Australia - it's a plan that will keep us the safest place in Australia."
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