The New South Wales Premier has labelled state border closures an "embarrassment" while addressing the Australian Financial Review Business Summit.
Gladys Berejiklian called for more courage from states and territories as the vaccine rollout reduces risk.
"There was and is absolutely no reason for closing internal borders within Australia. The only time New South Wales did that was when Victoria had in excess of 180 cases per day, and because we have 55 checkpoints between our two borders," she said.
"On the notion there might be a case here and there, it is a complete overreaction. So I think we just need to accept now that at the end of three weeks of the vaccination, all the high-risk people have been vaccinated; it's reduced our risk.
"It doesn't mean people won't get the virus or pass it on but the risk is massively diminished. There is no reason why internal borders should even be an issue. I think it's an embarrassment... I find it embarrassing within Australia.
"We've got great international borders at the moment which are keeping the community safe. No excuse whatsoever for internal borders. I agree there should be some greater national consistency to give business greater confidence because even though I tell our citizens in NSW we will always keep our borders open... I can't control what other states do, but what other states do impact the decisions of my citizens."
Ms Berejiklian also said the notion of every state creating its own different definition regarding coronavirus outbreaks "defies logic", stating NSW has always maintained lockdowns and border closures should be the absolute last resort.
"We now have between 75-80 per cent of our adult population on the Service NSW app - which is high penetration for a government within 12 months and we've already had about 120 million touch-ins of the QR Codes," she said.
"When you build the systems, you don't need to rely on those ad-hoc measures which hurt business, hurt citizens and don't give us the opportunity we need."