Mr Joyce was set to travel to Canberra, but was told by ACT Health his recent trip to Armidale meant he could not get through the border without being required to quarantine.

The Member for New England told the Leader he thought he had narrowly avoided such a fate, but was later advised the rules had changed.

"Armidale went into quarantine at 11:59pm [on Thursday], I landed there on a plane, picked up Vikki and left by 10 o'clock that night, before the lockdown, and then the ACT said 'that's alright'," he said.

"Then they came back and said 'no, no, we're going back beyond that, and you were there before that and you're in it', because I was there, even though it was for about an hour, before then.

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"So then they said if you want to come to Canberra now then you've got to go into quarantine for 14 days at your own expense, and I don't want to do that."

He said retrospectively naming places hotspots or affected areas is almost impossible to plan for, and he would err on the side of caution as a result.

Mr Joyce is now stuck in the Tamworth lockdown, which came into place at 5pm on Monday, August 9, due to his property falling within the local government area.

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