International students and workers will be allowed to return to Australia within weeks, with tourists potentially permitted back into the country by Christmas.
With Australia’s international borders reopening in Sydney for citizens, residents and their families on November 1, the government is moving fast on the plan to allow more travellers into the country.
“In the Australian way, we move cautiously but deliberately,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Sunrise on Thursday.
Before international tourists are welcomed back, the government wants to see how the initial border reopening goes.
If it does go well, travellers could be back - but only into states and territories that will accept them.
Foreign students and workers will return sooner.
“We will start seeing that in late November, early December,” Morrison said.
7NEWS can reveal Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has written to the Victorian Government, supporting a plan to welcome 240 fully vaccinated international students per fortnight from December.
New South Wales is already planning to accept 250 students a fortnight and South Australia is set to welcome back 320 a month.
There are no plans in place yet for international students to return to Queensland and Western Australia.
“International students bring more than 260,000 jobs with them,” Universities Australia CEO Catriona Jackson said.
“We really look forward to the day when we can welcome these really valuable contributors back.”
The timetable for foreign tourists, students and workers is much sooner than the National Cabinet plan.
Senior government sources caution it will hinge greatly on NSW and Victoria’s reopening going smoothly over the coming weeks.
“We don’t want to see what has happened in other parts of the world where people have moved too fast,” Morrison said.
Morrison expects Victoria to follow a similar path to NSW in its plans to reopen Melbourne - where lockdown will end on Friday - to international travel.
COVID update
Victoria and Tasmania have become the latest states to achieve 70 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage for people aged 16 and above.
The benchmark was reached as Victoria recorded its second highest daily case increase on Thursday with 2232 new infections, while another 12 people died taking the state’s toll past 1000.
NSW registered 372 new cases and one death.
Almost 86 per cent of over-16s have received a first dose nationally, while the full vaccination coverage rate is nudging 71 per cent.
WA continues to trail the nation with 57.6 per cent double dose, slightly behind Queensland at 58.7.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifmh0dHBzOi8vN25ld3MuY29tLmF1L3RyYXZlbC9mb3JlaWduLXN0dWRlbnRzLXdvcmtlcnMtYW5kLXRvdXJpc3RzLXRvLWJlLWFsbG93ZWQtYmFjay1pbnRvLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1iZWZvcmUtY2hyaXN0bWFzLWMtNDI5ODIzONIBAA?oc=5
2021-10-21 07:03:00Z
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