Australia’s internal travel restrictions are tested in court

TOO MANY roads cross the southern border of the state of Queensland for police to patrol them all. Instead, the authorities have been setting up waist-high plastic barricades to block small streets that lead to neighbouring New South Wales near the sprawling city of Gold Coast. The intention is to prevent people entering Queensland from avoiding police checkpoints. The state, which has only a few active cases of covid-19, is closing itself off to the 15m residents of Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, in an effort to prevent more from being imported.

Walls of a less visible variety have been erected all over Australia since the pandemic began. All bar one of its eight main states and territories have imposed border controls, either banning certain domestic travellers or forcing them to quarantine in hotels on arrival.

Victoria accounts for the vast majority of Australia’s 7,500-odd active cases. Sydney, the capital of New South...

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