The Prime Minister has flagged allowing Australians to travel overseas and return home, without going into hotel quarantine, if they are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Key points:
- Scott Morrison says people would be permitted to travel for "essential reasons" such as business, medical reasons, important family events and funerals
- He says vaccinated people would still need to quarantine but may be able to do that at their homes instead
- The government has been considering how and when it can open to the rest of the world, beyond the New Zealand travel bubble
However, Scott Morrison warned the vaccination program was not a "silver bullet" and the nation would need to be prepared for the potential of "many" more COVID-19 cases if international border restrictions were to be widely lifted.
"If we were to lift the borders and people to come, then you would see those cases increase and Australians would have to become used to dealing with 1,000 cases a week or more," he told Nine Radio.
"Now, it is true that our most vulnerable populations would be vaccinated, but I don't think Australians … would welcome restrictions and closures and border shutting and all of those things again."
National Cabinet last week asked the federal government's expert medical panel for advice on when Australia could consider opening up to other countries, beyond the New Zealand travel bubble starting later this month, as well as alternatives to hotel quarantine.
"What I'm working on right now, is that where an Australian is vaccinated under our program, when they will be able to travel overseas," Mr Morrison told a community forum in Perth.
"I would think in the initial stages, particularly for essential purposes, business, things like that, medical reasons, friends and family, important events, funerals, so on.
"That could be done and return to Australia without the need for a hotel quarantine of 14 days and to be able to do that either at home or under some other less stringent environment than you have with hotel quarantine.
"Now that would require being vaccinated and I think that would be an important incentive for people to do that."
October aim for international travel still on track, Qantas says
The Prime Minister's comments came as Qantas said it was sticking to its plan to restart international travel in October, despite delays to Australia's COVID-19 vaccination program threatening to delay the timetable.
"We're getting our aircraft and people ready for the end of October but we have complete flexibility, if we need to open up bubbles before October, we can … If we need to push things out past October because the vaccine rollout isn't as fast as people expect, we can do that," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said.
"But we still think the end of October is the best planning date for us and the government is continuing that dialogue with us."
Mr Joyce backed the Prime Minister's nomination of Singapore as another potential travel bubble destination and said there were several other options being considered.
"There's clearly a lot of countries in the region, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, that have had tight control over COVID, not to the extent of Australia and New Zealand, but they give us opportunities for markets like Singapore, markets like Japan, markets like Taiwan, potentially to open up," he said.
"We're also actively looking at the Pacific Islands because there is real good opportunities for places like Fiji and the Pacific Islands to open up, which we think there would be huge demand for."
Mr Joyce also said it was likely that other countries would require passengers to receive a COVID-19 vaccination as international travel resumes.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTA0LTE1L2NvdmlkLXZhY2NpbmF0ZWQtYXVzdHJhbGlhbnMtY291bGQtYmUtYWxsb3dlZC1vdmVyc2Vhcy10cmF2ZWwvMTAwMDczMTY40gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMDA3MzE2OA?oc=5
2021-04-15 11:31:13Z
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