Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan told Sky News Australia that
national cabinet would make a final decision on Friday but that things
were looking good.
The reopening of the border was delayed by two weeks because of the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
“Everything we’re seeing from this new variant points to the fact that
we should be able to progress on the 15th,” Mr Tehan said.
“Which is wonderful news for Australia’s tourism industry, wonderful
news for universities, wonderful news for all those businesses looking
for that workforce that’s really going to help springboard us out of the
pandemic.”
It was a much more optimistic message than Cabinet
colleague Greg Hunt who said just two days earlier that he was
“certainly not making any guarantees” that the border would open on
December 15.
“It’s our intention at the end of that period,
subject to the science and medical advice, to return to the previous
settings. It will depend on the international evidence,” he said.
When he announced the two-week delay to the border reopening, Prime
Minister Scott Morrison called on state governments not to be spooked
into lockdowns.
“There is very much a no regrets policy, and
ensuring we just move carefully so we, the whole point here is to ensure
that we can remain safely open, and we don’t want to prejudice anything
that might compromise that objective,” Mr Morrison said at the time.
“The goal here is not no cases and low cases, the goal here is ensuring
that our hospital system is able to cope with the pressure.”
Mr
Morrison also met with business leaders virtually to reiterate his
position that the delay to the border reopening was temporary.
There are now 34 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 detected in
NSW, while cases have been detected in Queensland and Victoria.
Vaccinated international arrivals currently have to quarantine for 72
hours after they arrive in Australia in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
However, people who have been in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana,
Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini or Malawi will be required to
enter hotel quarantine for 14 days.
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Australia has reported about 220,000 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began while 2000 people have died.
More than 88 per cent of the eligible population has received two vaccine doses.
