Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed on Wednesday when he believes Australia’s borders, closed since March, will begin again.
Mr Morrison said international travel will restart on an ‘industrial scale’ in the second half of next year, however the government has allowed New Zealanders to enter Australia since October. He said that it will be months before passengers from other countries will be allowed to enter Australia.
“We not lifting the international borders at the moment and we have no immediate plans to do that,” Mr Morrison told Channel 7.
“We’re taking this very cautiously. The reason we’ve done so well is we’ve been so careful around our borders.
“I hope that we could see international travel resume well into next year but I’m not expecting it in the first quarter of next year and in the quarter after that a lot would have to change to see that happening on any sort of industrial scale.”
Mr Morrison said there may be a deal with Pacific island nations in the New Year, and at the moment there are harvest workers from the Pacific being asked to quarantine on farms in Queensland. He said “that’s working well”.
The prime minister also revealed strong controls were critical in helping Australia avoid the worst of the pandemic.
“There has been good, strong health controls. Yes, we shut down the borders. Yes, we got our testing and tracing systems in place and they’ve been highly effective,” he said.
“I’ve never been more proud of my country than I am now. When I look at what’s happening around the world, this has been an effort from everyone.”