ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says Canberrans not likely to be able to travel until end of winter

Andrew Barr said travel restrictions, which currently prevent ACT residents from travelling freely to Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, are likely to stay in place for at least the next month.

"I need to be clear with Canberrans that the situation is likely to remain throughout the winter. It is unlikely that the Sydney outbreak will be brought under control in the very near future," Mr Barr said.

Mr Barr has repeatedly expressed his frustration at states for closing their borders to the ACT, given there has been no community transmission in the territory for one year.

"We are obviously frustrated and disappointed at various travel restrictions that have been placed on this jurisdiction," he said.

"Nevertheless, we understand the fact that many Australian states have zero tolerance for any risks and are not interested in travellers, even those quite distant from the Sydney outbreak coming into their jurisdiction."

Victoria was the latest state to effectively shut its border to Canberra, with ACT and NSW residents banned from entering without a permit after 11.59pm on Sunday.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said the ACT was included in the ban as it was surrounded by NSW. He also said the territory did not have a "sophisticated permit system" like Victoria.

"[The ACT can] be exposed to a lot of free movement in and out of regional NSW," Mr Foley said.

There are fears Queensland could be next, but Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stopped short of closing the border on Monday.

Ms Palaszczuk said the situation in NSW was being monitored but it is not clear whether the state would include the ACT in any border shutdown.

ACT Senator Zed Seselja also slammed the move by Victoria to close the border to the territory.

"The decision by the Victorian to class the ACT as a red zone, despite no community transmission in a year, is a highly disappointing and unfair move by the Victorian Labor government," Mr Seselja said.

"Unnecessary hard borders cause uncertainty and damage confidence. The ACT is not Sydney, and there is no justification for Victoria to have closed their borders to the ACT at this stage"

Despite the border closures, Mr Barr said the ACT would not move to tighten its border with NSW.

He said completely closing off the territory from NSW would affect supply lines and be a massive burden on surrounding towns such as Queanbeyan.

"It's clear that short of absolutely sealing a bubble where no one comes in or out of the ACT, that would be the only thing that would satisfy other jurisdictions," Mr Barr said.

"The idea that the ACT can have a hard barricade with NSW is just not feasible. There's more than 60 road crossings."

ACT residents who have been in Greater Sydney are already subject to a two-week home quarantine, which came into effect at the weekend.

Non-ACT residents who have been in Greater Sydney are not allowed to enter the territory without an exemption, which is only granted in extenuating circumstances.

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Similar restrictions were placed on Sydney travellers during the Northern Beaches outbreak in December and January.

During that time, the ACT had a strong police presence at the Federal Highway border and states did not shut their borders to the territory.

But Mr Barr said this approach would not be as effective with the more infectious Delta variant.

"We could do that, but that's not going to change the travel declarations of other jurisdictions because of the nature of the Delta variant and because of the nature of the outbreak," he said.

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