I sometimes wonder whether our Chief Health Officers (CHOs) around the country even bother to look at what is going on overseas in other Western countries.
When will they open their eyes and think outside of fortress Australia or fortress states?
Europe is in the process of implementing a travel passport system that will allow vaccinated EU citizens almost unlimited travel to any one of the 27 European countries without quarantining in most cases.
You might think that is because they have vaccinated the vast majority of their citizens and have close to zero local transmissions. Well, you would be wrong. Many of these countries have vaccination rates well below Australia’s and continue to experience large daily infection numbers.
But the CHOs in 27 European countries (plus Britain) have deemed that if a person has been vaccinated with an approved vaccine, it is safe for them to travel. This is seen as both a safeguard and an incentive to get vaccinated. It is also a recognition that informed citizens that have taken the necessary steps to protect themselves and their families should not be arbitrarily constrained from all movement. Instead, a traffic light system is deployed where only travel to red zone countries will result in you having to quarantine upon your return.
The relaxation of travel restrictions in Europe, Britain and America has not changed the advice from our own CHOs who clearly think they know better.
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The Prime Minister has announced a four-phase plan back to normality. But in the first of four phases we are going backwards by halving the number of Australians that would be allowed entry to Australia, whether or not they are vaccinated, and whether or not they come from red, green or amber designated countries.
We will apparently click over to a second phase sometime in 2022 after enough of the population has been vaccinated to a level yet to be determined by “experts” and endorsed by our CHOs – presumably also when we have zero local transmissions. At that magical moment in 2022, we will restore the number of incoming travellers – you guessed it – to current levels.
Wow. Is that the plan? Reinforce fortress Australia by halving entry to our shores, further punish our tourism industry, our universities which desperately need vaccinated overseas students to come, our international businesses wanting to trade with the world and, most importantly, Australians who cannot visit loved ones.
In Australia, fully-vaccinated individuals – even when they have taken the additional step of providing a negative COVID test – are still often unable to travel interstate. And overseas travel is a receding dream for most of us. The vaccinated gain no additional advantage in terms of attending meetings, going to restaurants or to the footy.
I think the federal government is happy to keep it this way, because if vaccinated people were allowed greater travel and other freedoms, there would be a rush to get vaccinated. But the supply of recommended vaccines for the under 60s is simply not there.
I was born in a little island in the Mediterranean called Cyprus. It is part of the EU. It has a population of less than a million. Every day it records between 300 to 400 new positive cases, but its hospitals are not overrun because it has managed to vaccinate its most vulnerable – over 70 per cent of the over 60s and 90 per cent of the over 70s.
In the last two weeks of June, Cyprus recorded 2,323 cases but no deaths. Importantly the average age of the infected was 23, with 34 per cent being under 19. It is in the under-40 age group where vaccination rates are low. But it is also this younger group that recovers quickly and is least affected by the virus.
The Cyprus case shows how the virus can be managed with limited vaccine availability by protecting the elderly through vaccination while still allowing inward bound visitors who are vaccinated and who test negative.
This has not saved Cyprus’ tourism industry, because with poor enforcement of COVID passports, poorly controlled inbound Russian tourism and inadequate social distancing, it has gone from an amber to a red zone. European and British citizens travelling to Cyprus therefore face quarantine at their own cost on their return. It’s a big disincentive even though travel there is still not banned.
This system means very few vaccinated Europeans are holidaying in Cyprus. But big numbers are holidaying in Greece which has an amber country designation with some green zones in parts of the country and the islands.
In fact, vaccinated Americans are arriving to Greece in record numbers which is providing a much-needed boost to the Greek economy. But you won’t see Australians from Melbourne which boasts the third largest Greek city in the world travelling to Greece.
Of course, no American, Briton or European sporting a vaccine certificate and a negative test result is allowed into fortress Australia. Within Australia, an individual who is vaccinated and tests negative is still often barred from travelling interstate, let alone given the opportunity to embark on the dream of overseas travel.
I think the first state premier who allows their vaccinated citizens to travel overseas, especially to visit loved ones, while welcoming vaccinated visitors from interstate or overseas will increase their popularity by a large margin. They will also do the country a huge favour as the rush to get vaccinated would increase exponentially.
Theo Theophanous is a commentator and former Victorian Labor Minister.