Morrison criticised over Father's Day trip

Australian leader Scott Morrison has been criticised for "appalling judgment" after travelling between Canberra and Sydney for Father's Day during heavy lockdowns.

The Prime Minister took an air force jet from the national capital to his hometown on Friday and spent the weekend in Sydney before returning to the ACT on Monday.

Health authorities granted him an exemption to return to Canberra with his movement restricted to The Lodge and Parliament House.

But Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten believes Mr Morrison made a mistake with so many Australians unable to see family on Father's Day because of border closures.

"It's not that he doesn't deserve to see his kids, but so does every other Australian," the former opposition leader told the Nine Network on Tuesday.

"When people are doing it tough, you've got to do it tough too.

"You can't have one rule for Mr Morrison and one rule for everyone else. I just think it's appalling judgment."

Mr Morrison did not break any rules.

Travel between Sydney and Canberra is banned unless an exemption is granted with NSW and the ACT both under strict stay-at-home orders.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said federal politicians were essential workers with conditions decided by federal and territory medical chiefs.

"There's a process in place that's been worked out between the chief health officer and the Commonwealth chief medical officer about what the expectations are of federal politicians," she told ABC radio.

"It's up to them, I think, to make a decision about whether their decisions are appropriate or not."

Almost 1200 coronavirus patients are in hospitals across the nation.

New South Wales reported 1220 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 and eight deaths on Tuesday, taking the number of infections in the current outbreak past 30,000.

Neighbouring Victoria recorded 246 cases for a second consecutive day, equalling the highest increase of the outbreak.

There were 11 cases in Canberra.

Southeast Queensland appears to have avoided a lockdown after recording no new local infections since Saturday.

Nationally, almost 36.43% of the population aged 16 and above have been fully vaccinated while 63.16% are covered with a single dose.