Sky News host Paul Murray says one of the most heartbreaking things about 2020 is to see “how our fellow Australians have been so happy to close the door on each other”.

“To say, if I’m ok, it doesn’t matter if you’re not ok,” Mr Murray said.

“The people who have hid behind the border politics of some of our lowest rate politicians.

“Your everyday Australian who has done nothing wrong deserves the right to be able to cross a border, to hug the person they love or to see the person they have missed.

“It is the priority of government to facilitate that free movement each and every day.

“Because while for some it has been fun to say ‘how good’s Queensland without all the tourists?’, ‘how good’s WA without all those awful people over east’, your Medicare card didn’t stop working in 2020, your Medicare card is something paid for by every person in Australia.

“Let us avoid the dark old days of falling into the nonsense of state first country second. It is country first every time.”