Sorry To Your Euro Plans, But International Travel Is Still Not “Happening Any Time Soon”

Australia might be on the path to opening back up, but you can kiss any (last, lingering) thought you had of a European jaunt goodbye. Scott Morrison said he “can’t see [international travel] happening any time soon”, which is not surprising in the least.

The PM outlined a three-stage plan to open up Australia on Friday, which will see workplaces, schools, gyms, restaurants and more reopen over a series of weeks. By stage three, inter-state travel will be a goer, and we’ll hopefully be able to travel around Australia sometime in July.

But as for international travel? It’s a long, long way off.

“There’s nothing on our radar which would see us opening up international travel in the foreseeable future,” Morrison said at the press conference on Friday.

“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 [world] countries and things like that. It’s a very limited set of circumstances.”

However, the government will be considering cross-Tasman and Pacific Island travel in stage three, so you might be able to say Kia Ora to your Kiwi buddies in the not-too-distant future. It’s not confirmed or anything – there’s quite a few factors at play here – but the government has committed to looking at reopening our borders for a few specific countries.

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Right now, considerations are also being made for international students on a case-by-case basis, but Morrison stressed that these are “exceptions, not the rule”.

“It is something that other countries are discussing, but, by and large, almost without exception I’m not aware of any countries that are looking at that option at this point,” Morrison said. We’ll let you know if these details firm up.

It’s not a huge surprise, but look: if you still had some lingering international holidays planned for 2020, it might be time to officially tell them sayonara.

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