Highlights
- Government working on direct flights, lifting caps to bring back Australians stuck overseas
- Travel bubble with Japan, Korea, Singapore in the offing
- National Cabinet meeting scheduled on Friday
PM Morrison said he will be discussing this with his National Cabinet colleagues – all the States and Territories Premiers and Chief Ministers when they meet on Friday.
On Tuesday, the prime minister during a press conference flagged that his government was working on arranging direct flights and lifting the caps.
When questioned about Australia’s borders, the prime minister said people coming from overseas continue to pose a risk to relatively COVID-free status of Australia but he added that his government was working on bringing back Australians stranded overseas.
“The other risk is of course people coming back from overseas. And we have Australians who are still coming back from overseas that we're looking to facilitate through both - direct flights and lifting the caps to enable them to come back, to the quarantine arrangements and the outbreak management beyond that is how we continue to manage this risk,” PM Morrison said.
“But I'm looking forward to a different environment next year and we will we assess this at every meeting about what's possible,” he said.
Listen to what the Prime Minister said:
He also shared the government was in the talks to establish more travel bubbles with the countries deemed ‘low-risk’ specifically in the Asia-Pacific.
“We continue to hold these discussions with countries like Japan, we have had them before with Korea, pacific nations, of course, New Zealand has already been opened for travel into Australia without quarantine arrangements,” he said.
“The situation in Europe and the United States is awful. And obviously, that presents a great risk from people coming from those parts to Australia. But out of many parts of Asia, particularly in North Asia, places like Taiwan and I would also say provinces of China, Singapore, we, you know, are looking at what alternative arrangements could be had to channel visitors through appropriate quarantine arrangements for low-risk countries.”
“We are open to that but we have not come to a point of decision on that,” he said.
450 spaces in quarantine facilities added in Hobart
Returning Australians and permanent residents will now be allowed to fly to Tasmania with the state government agreeing to provide an additional 450 spaces in quarantine facilities in Hobart hotels.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the additional capacity was on top of the 6,315 weekly quarantine spaces currently agreed to by states and territories.
“We’re working every option to help as many Australians return home as quickly as possible,” the Prime Minister said.
All inbound passengers will be required to be tested prior to travel and will need to return a negative COVID-19 test on or after day 10 of their quarantine period before entering the community.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is in charge of facilitating these direct flights.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said DFAT officials would work with Qantas to ensure the most vulnerable Australians registered are given priority access to these flights.
“Our focus is on helping Australians who want and need to return,” Minister Payne said.
“More than 411,000 Australians have returned since 13 March and around 30,600 have been assisted by the Australian Government including on 66 directly facilitated flights.”
More than 7,000 Australians of the 26,200 registered with DFAT on 18 September have returned since, including around a quarter who were considered vulnerable, the PM’s office said in a statement.
'Prime Minister needs to generously lift the caps'
In spite of an increase in the number of quarantine places made available by Northern Territory, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland, those stranded abroad say these small measures are insufficient and not helpful.
Samrat Chandra moved to Sydney in January this year from India. His wife and son who were to join him in March haven’t been able to due to border closures and caps on international arrivals.
Samrat Chandra with his family in Sydney Source: Supplied by Samrat Chandra
“To be honest, this has completely drained us – physically, mentally and financially,” Mr Chandra told SBS Hindi.
“We have tried to secure two tickets for months now but due to caps, we haven’t been able to.”
“My wife and son are vulnerable and alone and all I want is for them to join me in Sydney. It has been more than eight months now.”
“These 100-200 increase in quarantine places will not help. There are thousands of us waiting to come to Australia. The prime minister needs to generously lift the caps – by thousand at least to allow us all to come back to Australia,” Mr Chandra said.
He said these announcements gave him little hope to reunite with his family before Christmas.
“I don’t know how is that going to be possible. It is already mid-November. I hope he makes some generous announcement soon,” he said.
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