Goulburn mayor, Jindabyne business group call for free travel with ACT

Goulburn mayor Bob Kirk said his town being excluded from the regional bubble had stopped people from accessing health services and education. The town next door, Collector, is included in the bubble.

"Many of our people work [in Canberra], of course. Many of our people are traveling for specialist medical purposes, many of our people go there for shopping needs, educational needs and all those things," Mr Kirk said.

"It's very much the hub of the south-east region. And the fact that we're sort of locked out is just a line on a map, as far as we're concerned - it's just the next town down the road.

"A line on a map doesn't make Goulburn or Canberra people any more of an issue or health issue for one or the other than anywhere else."

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has announced that while the reasons for acceptable travel between the ACT and NSW will not change "dramatically" on October 15, the bubble will expand.

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"The reasons for travel are not going to change dramatically on Friday. The number of postcodes within the Canberra region standing exemption will increase, and that will be the arrangements really for the last two weeks of October," Mr Barr said on Monday.

"The point at which NSW reaches 80 per cent double dose ... that would then presumably be a trigger point, at which the ACT will also be allowed to travel further into the regions."

Mr Kirk said the relatively low vaccination rates in Goulburn - which sit at 92.6 per cent for first doses and 66 per cent for second doses - were partly due to the ACT's lockout of Goulburn at the beginning of lockdown.

"There's been a lot of inconvenience. There was a lot of conjecture in the early stages, when people who had appointments to get in there for the second COVID jab weren't able to go," he said.

"And there wasn't a hub here in Goulburn.

"In terms of the COVID vaccination, it sort of put a dent in proceedings for us."

Mr Kirk said this was exacerbated by the NSW government redistributing Pfizer vaccines to south-west Sydney.

Olivier Kapetanakos, head of the Jindabyne Chamber of Commerce, said travel between Canberra and the Snowy Mountains should be permitted.

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"Because of the high vaccination rates in Canberra, and because Canberra is such an important part to the economic survivability of the Snowy Mountains, it just makes a lot of sense," he said.

"Medical advice [is] that if you've been double-vaccinated, the chances of catching COVID [are] significantly less. And if you do catch it, it has a lower impact on you. The risk surely can't be high to open the borders up."

He said it was important for the survival of the region and its businesses, which are reliant on tourism, to open up.

"What we have learned out of the pandemic is that Canberra plays a significantly big part through our tourism economy. We always thought it was Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane, but Canberra plays a huge part to us. So please, come on down," Mr Kapetanakos said.

"To be able to go into Canberra, that would be a huge bonus to ourselves, and would also pay for some retail therapy for some of the businesses that haven't been operating during lockdown in Canberra."

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