I guess time will tell. You characterise it as panic, I characterise that as hyperbole. But you are entiltled to your opinion - I dont have to agree with it.
Time has told. This started in March. It’s now November. The plan was to “flatten the curve” while systems were put in place to manage this. That has been done. In all jurisdictions.
As a specialist, I’ve had the ability to continue traveling state to state (albeit with restrictions) for the better part of the year. I’m quite glad that I live in NSW that clearly remains the only state that has achieved exceptional management of the virus. Even the smallest cafe in Sydney has a solid tracing system in place. The same can’t be said for other states that dedicated all their efforts to keeping others out.
To an extent, we are all entitled to our opinion. Working for the federal government at the moment, I could challenge that notion. But that doesn’t make the opinion right. In the case of many, yourself included, the only opinion you seem to have in regards to this pandemic is “get out of my town!”. As I said, it’s xenophobic based panic unsurprisingly strongest in Queensland and WA.
The amount of time, money and resourcing wasted on border closures is hard to fathom. Had that effort been applied to managing the pandemic in a sustainable manner, we wouldn’t be in this position.