The ACT is an island so far spared impact from the outbreaks around us. While it has been fortunate in avoiding fresh infections since the early days of Victoria's second wave, this luck surely won't last forever.

The news 80 locals had to self-isolate after the Batemans Bay outbreak, and that Victoria recorded a record 484 new cases on Wednesday, underscores this point. Don't forget, on June 9 the whole country only recorded two new cases and everybody thought COVID-19 was licked. Yesterday 42 Australians were in intensive care, 25 of them on ventilators.

NSW has already ramped up recently wound back restrictions several times in three weeks; a quarter of the Australian population is back under lockdown, and border restrictions are being tightened all the time.

Yet, despite the grim statistics and all of the above, foolish and selfish people are still hiding in car boots and the backs of trucks to breach border closures instituted for the protection of all.

There has already been pushback against the Victorian decision to mandate mask wearing in public, and there is still widespread non-compliance with social distancing restrictions in Sydney, Melbourne and elsewhere with large parties broken up - to the accompaniment of fines, and hotels and restaurants have been shut down over failures to comply.

The party animals in our midst need to get into their heads that this is not just about them; it is also about the tens of thousands of other people their behaviour is putting at risk.

As a result of failures by a small number of the people tasked with policing hotel quarantine in Victoria COVID-19 cases in that state are increasing at a frightening rate. In addition to jumping the border to NSW, the virus has also infiltrated Melbourne nursing homes, a grim development that could lead to hundreds of deaths.

The situation has never been more serious. This is why the ACT government is to be commended for its recent decision not to proceed with plans to relax restrictions further, and to explore preliminary arrangements to pave the way for a regional travel bubble if necessary. The "bubble" proposal is not an overreaction by an unduly nervous territory government. It is an honest recognition of the fact that if the virus gets away in NSW, in the same way it has in Victoria, then swift and decisive action will need to be taken.

While the imposition of such a bubble, and the first ever closure of the territory's borders, would have severe implications for communities across south eastern NSW, that is not a sufficient reason to scrap the plan. In circumstances such as these governments have to make decisions on the basis of the greatest good for the greatest number.

There is actually a certain irony in that while a few months ago Canberrans were being warned to stay away from regional NSW, especially the South Coast, for fear they may take the virus with them, the reverse is now the case.

The decision to suspend federal Parliament, which has also been criticised by some, was based on common sense. The last thing Canberra needs is hundreds of interstate politicians, and their staffers, converging on the city and potentially acting as "superspreaders". The federal government, which was acting on medical advice, made the right call and does not deserve to be punished for it.

This is not the time to make a bad situation even worse in the name of scoring a political point or two.