Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison stated that "every Australian matters, every life, every future," during his address to the nation moments ago.
On the topic that everyone wants to know about, international travel, he announced that he "can't see that happening any time soon. There's nothing on our radar which would see us opening up international travel in the foreseeable future. There are already some very, very minor exceptions, where the Border Force can provide an exemption for outbound travel, but that's in areas like facilitating development aid in third countries and things like that. It's a very limited set of circumstances."
The Australian PM's comments follow his teleconference this morning with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and six other heads of government that had successfully managed the first wave of the pandemic in their countries.
During that teleconference, the Greek PM proposed the creation of a “safe corridor” that will allow travel between countries which have successfully contained their coronavirus outbreaks, in a bid to revive tourism once border restrictions are lifted.
"In relation to the borders, international borders, we've spoken about New Zealand, as you've already noted. Issues of international students, you'll note that it does come into the third step of the plan. And that is a possibility. And how you would work that through, well, they'd have to be carefully tested. So, we are open to that, and we would be working with institutions to see how that could be achieved. But it has to be done according to those strict quarantine restrictions," the Australian PM further added during his address.
Australia's roadmap out of the coronavirus 'lockdown':
Stage 1
- Cafes and restaurants open
- Playgrounds, libraries, community centres and boot camps open
- Local and regional travel allowed
- Five visitors at home, 10 in business and public places
Stage 2
- Some gyms, beauty, cinemas, galleries and amusements parks open
- Gatherings of 20 in your home, business and public places
- Caravan or campervans open
- Some interstate travel
Stage 3
- Gatherings up to 100 people
- Return to work
- Nightclubs, food courts and saunas open
- All interstate travel
- Possible international travel to Pacific islands and cross-Tasman
