Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[Pushka]

Exactly. At this rate, why ever open the border up again?

Our economy depends on exports and exports, especially those disrupted by China efforts, can't pick up in different countries until marketing programs can be launched there. And zooms won't cut it next year.

 

[hb13]

Our economy depends on exports and exports, especially those disrupted by China efforts, can't pick up in different countries until marketing programs can be launched there. And zooms won't cut it next year.

I was being facetious. I agree with you that we need it. My point was, imagine every single Australian is vaccinated. Now let's say the vaccine doesn't really stop spread - but it stops any serious or mild sickness - why would we still continue to keep the borders closed? Because that is what the government is saying now. If you can still get Covid-19, but the effects are mild - then what is the issue??

The government has basically indicated that without the eradication of covid-19, they don't care about international travel. That's the frustrating thing for me.

Onto politics, it seems like most of the population is still in favour of keeping the border closed - I still think the Libs will win easily.

 

[Pushka]

I was being facetious. I agree with you that we need it. My point was, imagine every single Australian is vaccinated. Now let's say the vaccine doesn't really stop spread - but it stops any serious or mild sickness - why would we still continue to keep the borders closed? Because that is what the government is saying now. If you can still get Covid-19, but the effects are mild - then what is the issue??

The government has basically indicated that without the eradication of covid-19, they don't care about international travel. That's the frustrating thing for me.

Onto politics, it seems like most of the population is still in favour of keeping the border closed - I still think the Libs will win easily.

Ok. There's this icon thing for that as I don't pick up facetiousness in words.

 

[hb13]

What I'd like to understand, and I wish our reporters would ask our politicians this, is why the 2-week mandatory hotel quarantine doesn't apply to everyone. If this is really about public health, then every single person should have to complete 2 weeks in hotel quarantine.

Matt Damon arrived into Byron Bay and was allowed to quarantine in a house that he is staying in: Inside Matt Damon’s palatial Byron Bay quarantine mansion

If the government is honest in the fact that these rules are about health and safety - why isn't everyone being put through the same treatment?

Correct me if I'm mistaken, celebrities are still human beings - the risk they pose is just as much as anyone else - no?

 

[jakeseven7]

I think if he waits until 2022 he will lose the election.The poll numbers are changing slowly with more people gradually switching to the no border closures camp.
A poll currently running at news.com.au has robust contact tracing and living with the virus at 47% and hard border closures at 53%.
So my guess is announcing some form of reopened border in August/September with an election in September/October.

The politics will trump the virus.

Election will be def be in 2021 I think we will find - agree on that... but I disagree on timing, they won't open any international borders until the election is in the bag. It will happen afterwards.

A poll on No News supporting no borders, how surprising plus people are only feeling like this because there are no cases. If there was another Sydney sized outbreak I'm sure those numbers would change again.

Unfortunately the media and government have successfully terrified most Australians (through the threat of restrictions probably more than actually being afraid of the virus) into believing zero cases is the only acceptable number for normal life. And people want normal life.

 

[Pushka]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, celebrities are still human beings - the risk they pose is just as much as anyone else - no?

It's about perception of risk and adherence to restrictions.

 

[desafinado74]

Another thing that irks me about the Federal government is , they have not specify the criteria for reopening international borders, and are not interested in approving rapid home testing kits , such as the one below, which is from a QLD company , who has obtained FDA approval in the US.

BREAKING: FDA authorizes first over-the-counter, fully at-home COVID-19 test

The Ellume COVID-19 Home is the first fully at-home test for the novel coronavirus that FDA is authorizing for over-the-counter sales.

www.massdevice.com

And no news if there will be pre testing centres in Australia. (More and more countries are requiring people to be tested before departing )

The Federal government is using Covid as an excuse to avoid making any decisions. Pathetic.

 

[Pushka]

Another thing that irks me about the Federal government is , they have not specify the criteria for reopening international borders, and are not interested in approving rapid home testing kits , such as the one below, which is from a QLD company , who has obtained FDA approval in the US.

BREAKING: FDA authorizes first over-the-counter, fully at-home COVID-19 test

The Ellume COVID-19 Home is the first fully at-home test for the novel coronavirus that FDA is authorizing for over-the-counter sales.

www.massdevice.com

And no news if there will be pre testing centres in Australia. (More and more countries are requiring people to be pre tested before flying at the moment)

The Federal government is using Covid as an excuse to avoid making any decisions. Pathetic.

I think perhaps we should grant them the grace of seeing how the vaccination uptake and effectiveness pans out. There is no Covid manual they can refer to here and every country in the world is grappling this differently so there is no right or wrong model yet.

 

[desafinado74]

I think if he waits until 2022 he will lose the election.The poll numbers are changing slowly with more people gradually switching to the no border closures camp.
A poll currently running at news.com.au has robust contact tracing and living with the virus at 47% and hard border closures at 53%.
So my guess is announcing some form of reopened border in August/September with an election in September/October.

The politics will trump the virus.

I hope you are right. It is also unbelievable that the state premiers (Except NSW) can get away with the nonsense state border closures , and it is pretty shocking that Scomo is not applying more pressure to the premiers to stop such cough.

 

[desafinado74]

Election will be def be in 2021 I think we will find - agree on that... but I disagree on timing, they won't open any international borders until the election is in the bag. It will happen afterwards.

A poll on No News supporting no borders, how surprising plus people are only feeling like this because there are no cases. If there was another Sydney sized outbreak I'm sure those numbers would change again.

Unfortunately the media and government have successfully terrified most Australians (through the threat of restrictions probably more than actually being afraid of the virus) into believing zero cases is the only acceptable number for normal life. And people want normal life.

Just look at the panic buying for toilet paper etc in supermarkets. It goes to show that many Aussies are easily spooked sheep.

 

[Must...Fly!]

If we could travel relatively freely within the country, I think the desire for international borders to be open would probably be less.

That should be our focus for the next couple of months, and I think it would make the biggest difference (bigger than vaccines, for the next few months anyway) for Australia given the fortunate place we are at with the pandemic.

 

[Princess Fiona]

What I'd like to understand, and I wish our reporters would ask our politicians this, is why the 2-week mandatory hotel quarantine doesn't apply to everyone. If this is really about public health, then every single person should have to complete 2 weeks in hotel quarantine.

Matt Damon arrived into Byron Bay and was allowed to quarantine in a house that he is staying in: Inside Matt Damon’s palatial Byron Bay quarantine mansion

If the government is honest in the fact that these rules are about health and safety - why isn't everyone being put through the same treatment?

Correct me if I'm mistaken, celebrities are still human beings - the risk they pose is just as much as anyone else - no?

The celebrities that are granted exemptions and allowed to quarantine in a private residence have to pay for their own security, cleaning etc. The leg work is no doubt done by the production companies but it certainly isn’t cheap to do quarantine in a private residence.
Given the structures they have to put into place for the exemption I’d say they are the same risk as those in hotel quarantine.
Allowing anyone who wants to quarantine at home with their family is another massive level of risk.

There are exemptions in NSW for unaccompanied minors to quarantine at home with their family. It’s strictly monitored, the entire family is quarantined for the 14 days and all tested before release.

 

[oznflfan]

If we could travel relatively freely within the country, I think the desire for international borders to be open would probably be less.

That should be our focus for the next couple of months, and I think it would make the biggest difference (bigger than vaccines, for the next few months anyway) for Australia given the fortunate place we are at with the pandemic.

Correct, no-one would be willing to take that dream 3 week holiday in QLD, or a 2 week interstate 4WD desert crossing with potential border closure at a minutes notice. I'm flying to Melbourne in March for AFL Round 1 (just the weekend) and I'm nervous.

 

[mviy]

If we could travel relatively freely within the country, I think the desire for international borders to be open would probably be less.

For some yes. However state borders open does nothing to help visit family overseas or to help family overseas be able to book an economy flight to visit home and be confident that if they are bumped off the flight they will be able to travel just a few days later.

 

[Must...Fly!]

For some yes. However state borders open does nothing to help visit family overseas or to help family overseas be able to book an economy flight to visit home and be confident that if they are bumped off the flight they will be able to travel just a few days later.

Completely agree and my sympathies to people caught in that situation. It could easily have been myself caught up in that scenario so I really do understand. I feel that in the community the complete lack of a coherent national approach to our internal borders is doing significant damage to businesses, families and to the broader economy.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

There is a natural tendency for people to keep focusing on "why does xx_ get special treatment?", when the real problem is that "special treatment" can't be implemented more widely. Allowing diplomatic staff to quarantine at home in Canberra, for example, has been a non-event. And surely some common-sense exceptions could have been made for people traveling from basically irrelevant parts of Perth over the first few days, if only the bureaucratic will and capacity existed.

Common sense and risk management unfortunately go out the window when the only acceptable number is, um, doughnut.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was being facetious. I agree with you that we need it. My point was, imagine every single Australian is vaccinated. Now let's say the vaccine doesn't really stop spread - but it stops any serious or mild sickness - why would we still continue to keep the borders closed? Because that is what the government is saying now. If you can still get Covid-19, but the effects are mild - then what is the issue??

The government has basically indicated that without the eradication of covid-19, they don't care about international travel. That's the frustrating thing for me.

Onto politics, it seems like most of the population is still in favour of keeping the border closed - I still think the Libs will win easily.

That's not actually what the government is saying though! They are saying 'let's wait and see'. The PM said it would be ideal if the vaccine stopped transmission, but there was no 'absolute' on that.

The population might be in favour of border closures, for now... but if we got to the stage of minimal symptoms, despite transmission, that could change rapidly.

Another thing that irks me about the Federal government is , they have not specify the criteria for reopening international borders, and are not interested in approving rapid home testing kits , such as the one below, which is from a QLD company , who has obtained FDA approval in the US.

BREAKING: FDA authorizes first over-the-counter, fully at-home COVID-19 test

The Ellume COVID-19 Home is the first fully at-home test for the novel coronavirus that FDA is authorizing for over-the-counter sales.

www.massdevice.com

And no news if there will be pre testing centres in Australia. (More and more countries are requiring people to be tested before departing )

The Federal government is using Covid as an excuse to avoid making any decisions. Pathetic.

The PM discussed the rapid test in an interview last night. It wasn't so much that they weren't interested, but rather that they needed more evidence to see if it worked. It wasn't ruled out 'ever', just until more data is available. He said other countries had reasons for emergency approval for these sorts of things. We don't need to act in haste.

I hope you are right. It is also unbelievable that the state premiers (Except NSW) can get away with the nonsense state border closures , and it is pretty shocking that Scomo is not applying more pressure to the premiers to stop such cough.

But we have to look at the reason 'why' premiers are closing state borders. It's because of the potential risk. The guy in Perth was out in the community for days, potentially spreading the virus.

Once we have a vaccine, and if symptoms are reduced, there won't be the need to close borders.

The Cth tried to stop premiers closing borders, but ultimately that case was decided in favour of the states. I doubt a referendum to change that would be successful.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

That's not actually what the government is saying though! They are saying 'let's wait and see'.

That's how *you're* interpreting what they're saying to *you*.

It's like it's all been passed through some sort of obtuseness filter.

 

[trevella]

A few months ago our High Commission was told to base Australian staffing decisions on the assumption that caps on incoming travel would remain in place until December 2021. It’s relevant in part because some staffing decisions depend on the number of our citizens in Australia, whether temporary or otherwise.

This week we were told to push it out to March 2022, and to be prepared to shift personnel to Europe.

 

[twiningb]

A few months ago our High Commission was told to base Australian staffing decisions on the assumption that caps on incoming travel would remain in place until December 2021. It’s relevant in part because some staffing decisions depend on the number of our citizens in Australia, whether temporary or otherwise.

This week we were told to push it out to March 2022, and to be prepared to shift personnel to Europe.

May I ask which High Commission, and in what capacity personnel might be shifted to Europe?