'Fortress Australia': Why calls to open up borders are meeting resistance

Australia has been one of the world's Covid success stories, where infection rates are near zero and life mostly goes on as normal.

That's in large part thanks to the early move to shut its borders - a policy that has consistently been supported by the public.

But after a year in the cocoon, there is growing unease in the country over the so-called "Fortress Australia" policy.

Recent announcements declaring that Australia won't open up until mid-2022 - meaning a two year-plus isolation - have amplified concerns.

Critics argue the extension of closed borders will cause long-lasting damage to the economy, young people and separated families. It also tarnishes Australia's character as open and free, they say.

Calls for a clear plan to pull Australia back into the world are growing, as the country wrestles with an uncomfortable tension - balancing the safety of closed borders against what is lost by living in isolation.

"A Fortress Australia with the drawbridge pulled up indefinitely is not where we want to be," says former Race Discrimination Commissioner Dr Tim Soutphommasane.