The closures for health reasons have had enormous economic consequences for the travel and tourism industries, in particular. At the height of the health crisis they were largely accepted, but as the health scares recede they have been seen as increasingly problematic and politically challenging.

There have been three aspects to this border politics. The first has been the closure of our international borders to incoming and outgoing people movement since the cancelling of flights from China in February. This has mainly involved air traffic but has also related to trying to prevent cruise ships from docking at Australian ports.

The second aspect has the closure of some state borders by premiers. Of the eight state and territory jurisdictions five governments, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, have locked down their borders. Border checkpoints, including on the busy NSW/Queensland border, have prevented entry to the closed jurisdictions in question.

The two largest states, NSW and Victoria, have maintained open borders, as has the Australian Capital Territory, for whom it was never a reasonable option given extensive cross-border commuting owing to its size and location.

The third aspect has been restrictions on intra-state movements. Within Western Australia and the Northern Territory there have been official restricted zones, including bans on entry into Indigenous communities.

The whole Australian community has basically been urged to stay at home rather than moving around, except for essential travel. Visiting family members has not been possible, and long trips for holidaymaking have been outlawed. These regulations have applied to large categories of people, including grey nomads and those who own holiday properties or second homes, usually located in coastal areas.

Stern advice has been given by the state authorities, enforced by the police, to prevent such intra-state travel. The Easter break was one such high point. Fines have been administered to those who have broken rules against travel to second homes, including to the NSW Arts Minister, Don Harwin, who was then sacked. The travel of the NSW Deputy Premier, John Barilaro, was investigated, but he was found not guilty of a similar infringement.

For landlocked ACT residents, travel between Canberra and the coast has been especially contentious. Distinctive ACT number plates have made such travel particularly visible compared with travel to the coast from elsewhere in the Canberra region, such as Queanbeyan.

These border closures have come as a terrific shock to Australians used to travelling around the country and around the world as tourists. Given that mobility, the broad acceptance by the community has been remarkable. Australians have been generally docile and compliant.

Fear of infection drove the compliance at the peak of the pandemic. Incoming travellers were seen to be a danger to the local community, whether they were foreigners to Australia, foreigners to a state or foreigners to a region. Foreigners of any sort were not welcome. Official health advice supported these fears.

Underlying that transient fear and compliance is a deeper suspicion in the minds of some people towards anyone who is not a local. This applies not just to international visitors and tourists. Within Australia, deeply rooted interstate and inter-regional suspicions exist, built on local loyalties and suspicion of outsiders.

These are easily recognizable at the state level, for instance in the attitude of Western Australians towards the eastern states and of Queenslanders towards southerners. But they also apply more generally.

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Despite the economic advantages to local communities of travel and tourism, there remains some irritation that local lifestyles are disturbed by outsiders, even those outsiders who spend a lot of money. This irritation is seen in trivial ways during normal times when tourists cause congestion on the roads and overcrowding in shops.

In times like the pandemic, the irritation becomes anger directed at outsiders. Locals make it abundantly clear that outsiders are unwelcome. Sometimes that anger is so strongly expressed that it becomes personal, even when the outsiders have owned properties locally for decades or even generations.

Restrictions on inter-regional travel are now beginning to ease, and interstate borders are opening or will open in the coming months. Those that have not yet are under growing political pressure, even to the extent of High Court challenges to the right of state governments to close their borders.

Ironically, once the closures are lifted great efforts will then be made by state governments, local governments, tourism authorities and individual enterprises to woo back tourists and holidaymakers. At the same time, equivalent efforts will be made, for instance by the ACT government, to urge citizens to stay at home and help their local economy to recover.

"Keep out". Pushed here. Pulled there. It would not be a surprise if many Australians become sick and tired of being used and abused as objects of economic recovery in a great big social experiment.

Once domestic border politics has been resolved, the next issue will be our international borders. Pressure will build up as Australians become desperate to resume international travel. The appetite is there already as the interest in the "trans-Tasman bubble" showed.

International freedom of movement will be the next flash point. Australian government ministers may be happy for some state premiers to be in trouble now, but they themselves may well be next.