Queensland borders to open in time for Christmas

"Private companies and organisations can make decisions about what they do with their employees into the new year", Ms Berejiklian said.

Health officials said on Tuesday they were concerned about recent low testing numbers and anyone with symptoms should get tested.

Australia also hopes to restart global travel, with flights to New Zealand in the works.

The weird restrictions meant those from Sydney could potentially travel to Queensland but had to first spend 14 days outside the city.

Ms Palaszczuk expressed her opposition in allowing any global arrivals to her state out of fear of overwhelming Queensland's quarantine protocols.

"So the great thing for people coming into Queensland, and particularly our neighbours across the border, is it will be back to normal for them".

Queensland has welcomed Western Australians since the border opened on November 14, but only today have direct flights between Cairns and Perth resumed.

'There has to be a very clear message to the federal government that we need to keep Australia opened up to Australia and we need returning Australians home, but we do not need to welcome large scale worldwide visitors because our hotel quarantine would not be able to cope with that'.

Palaszczuk wants to see the same level of caution used for Australia's worldwide border so that the country does not open itself up to a third wave.

"We do appreciate this has a risk and we appreciate also that at social events and private homes, social distancing is hard to maintain", NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Wednesday.

This is also good news if you're a Queenslander now keen on a southern getaway, as you'll be able to head to Sydney or Melbourne (if all goes well in the next 24 hours) and not have to worry about quarantining on return.

The border was last shut in 1919 during the Spanish flu pandemic.

"If Australia's going to open up to Australia, the last thing we want to see, to put Australians at risk, is for a whole-scale opening of our global borders - that would be catastrophic", she said on ABC news this morning.

"We just need to wait for a little bit longer before we can decide what needs to happen", she said. I can't predict the future, ' she told ABC News Breakfast.

The moves will please Prime Minister Scott Morrison who has pushed state leaders to relax some curbs to help revive the economy, which shrank 7% in the three months to end-June, the most since records began in 1959.

'I'm thrilled that Queensland is open to the rest of the country.

The changed gathering restrictions in NSW will coincide with the reopening of the NSW-Queensland border on Tuesday, in time for summer.

"I have every confidence we would do the same here in Queensland".

What are the border restrictions?

There had still been restrictions in place for Sydney residents but after the state recorded 31 days without an unlinked case of COVID-19 the border was reopened to all of NSW.