Australia apos;s Three-step Plan To Open The Borders NEXT YEAR
Australia will open its borders next year to allow vaccinated Aussies to go on holiday and much-needed foreign workers to enter the country.
Tuesday's federal budget will outline plans for when the borders, which have been closed since March 2020 due to Covid-19, tour hà giang can finally re-open.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the nation would implement a three-step plan to gradually remove the onerous restrictions.
It came after Prime Minster Scott Morrison said the borders would remain closed 'indefinitely', with 56 per cent of Daily Mail readers supporting his tough stance.
Australia will open its borders next year to allow vaccinated Aussies to go on holiday. Pictured: Tahiti in the south pacific
Danielle Blanch of the country fire service is vaccinated by nurse Maddie Duggin at the Adelaide Showgrounds Vaccination Centre in Adelaide
Poll Are you happy for Australia's borders to be closed indefinitely to retain our way of life amid the Covid-19 pandemic?
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Firstly, the government will identify 'safe countries' with low levels of Covid-19 and set up travels bubbles similar to the current arrangement with New Zealand.
The second step is to offer the whole adult population a vaccine and the third step is to allow vaccinated Aussies to go on holiday.
'It's really built around the three principles of green lanes and opening up new bubbles with different safe countries, as we've done with New Zealand and as we'll do with others in the Pacific and in the region as they become progressively safer,' Mr Hunt said on Sunday.
'The second part of the road map is our own domestic vaccination strategy, protecting the nation.
'The third element, that's the capacity for greater travel for those who have been vaccinated.'
Mr Hunt said that vaccinated Aussies can travel earlier' and 'return with lesser restrictions'.
Earlier this month, Trade Minister Dan Tehan revealed the Government will take a 'systematic' approach to opening the borders which will see travel bubbles set up with individual nations.
'Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam have all been mentioned as potentials in that area,' he said, without giving any dates for when bubbles may start.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said opening the borders is crucial to the nation's economy.
The agriculture and hospitality industries, which rely on international labour, are struggling to find enough workers because non-citizens cannot enter the country.
People are seen waiting in a line for a Covid19 vaccination at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
'The borders will reopen when it's safe to do so, and when they do, net overseas migration will increase, including skilled workers,' Mr Frydenberg told [ ].
Last year the budget predicted a net immigration to be minus 72,000, meaning more people left the country than entered.
The Treasurer wants to get this figure back to where it was before the pandemic. In the year to June 2020, Australia's population grew by 194,400 people due to net overseas migration.
'I believe in a generous, sustainable immigration program that reflects the best of who we are, which is an open, tolerant, diverse country,' the Treasurer said.
But Scott Morrison has warned the borders will only open when it's safe.
'International borders will only open when it is safe to do so. We still have a long way to go and there are still many uncertainties ahead,' he wrote on Facebook.
Travel beyond Australia's border is expected to happen in stages as more travel bubbles open with safe countries, Health Minister Greg Hunt (pictured) said
On Sunday Mr Morrison warned international borders will remain closed indefinitely if it means protecting Australians from deadly outbreaks of mutant [/news/coronavirus/index.html Covid-19] strains from overseas.
The Prime Minister warned that reopening the borders too soon would expose the country to another and more ruthless outbreak of Covid-19, like the ones experienced in the UK, India and Europe.
'We sit here as an island that's living like few countries in the world are at the moment,' he told [ ].
'We have to be careful not to exchange that way of life for what everyone else has.'
Australians have been banned from leaving the country since March 2020 without special exemptions, and only citizens and permanent residents have been allowed to enter under some of the strictest Covid-19 border rules in the world.
But Mr Morrison denied adopting an 'elimination strategy' and said suppressing the virus remained the Government's primary focus.
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'Australia's COVID suppression strategy has not changed to an 'elimination' strategy nor is 'zero cases' our goal,' he clarified on Sunday.
'There will always be cases as we return Australians home from overseas. As always, we will continue to listen to the medical advice and tour hà nội hà giang make decisions in the best health and economic interests of all Australians.'
Last year, the Government predicted international borders would be open in October 2021 after the adult population had been offered a vaccine.
However Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the date will be pushed back to some time in 2022 amid the slow vaccine rollout and uncertainty over the Covid-19 vaccine's ability to protect against mutating strains of the virus.
India is currently grappling with its deadliest outbreak of the virus with nearly 240,000 people dead.
The country has recorded more than 400,000 new cases of Covid-19 in three consecutive days and its hospitals are struggling with a shortage of oxygen supplies to treat severely infected residents who are having trouble breathing.
Mr Morrison said he will wait until 'clear evidence' proves the vaccines are effective against mutant strains before allowing vaccinated Australians to travel overseas again.
'The next big step that can be taken is that Australians who are vaccinated are able to travel and return to Australia without having to hotel quarantine, and ideally we only have to engage in some sort of home quarantine of a less restrictive nature,' he said.
Scott Morrison has warned international borders will remain closed indefinitely if it means protecting Australians from a deadly outbreak of Covid-19 from overseas
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[ Budget 2021: Australia international borders to open in hope of bringing back migrants]
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