Coronavirus Australia: When can we travel to Bali?

While we’re being told to cancel our Christmas travel plans, Indonesia is pushing for a travel bubble with Australia as early as next month.

A leading Indonesian official says the country is in negotiations with Canberra to create a travel bubble with Australia as soon as next month.

The southeast Asian country is reopening its borders to international visitors next month and wants Australia to be included because it considers us safe in the coronavirus pandemic.

Luhut Pandjaitan, the Co-ordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said they were studying the situation day by day.

“We have to carefully select (countries), so I think Australia, New Zealand later on, China, of course, and maybe South Korea and Japan,” he told the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents’ Club.

“Right now we negotiate with Australia. We will see what happens, what they need from us and what we need from them. We need to negotiate standard of care because nobody can claim they’re better than others.”

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A near-empty beach in Kuta on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on March 22, amid concerns of the coronavirus outbreak. Picture: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP

Mr Pandjaitan said he disagreed when people said one country was better than another.

Indonesia has had 127,083 cases and 5765 deaths according to John Hopkins University.

“Look at America now. Look at Singapore,” he said.

“In Jakarta, in Indonesia in general, quite OK, but we have to be careful. If everybody is disciplined then we can much reduce the impact of COVID-19. That’s the key, because we don’t have medicine to cure this disease today.”

Daily cases in Indonesia have risen in recent weeks.

Australia Indonesia Business Council president Phil Turtle told The Australian a travel bubble with the country would be wonderful but very unlikely to happen before the end of the year

Bali reopened to domestic tourists on July 31 but plans of that extending to international Aussie tourists don’t look likely, with news today the Northern Territory looks to keep the hard border controls in place for at least another 18 months, and Western Australia points to a closure until at least the end of this year.

“If you can, cancel your Christmas holiday plans, stay here in the Northern Territory,” NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said.

A Balinese security employee stand on a deserted beach amid in Kuta in May. Picture: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP

While other countries are reopening their borders to international travel, and places like the USA are lifting overseas travel restrictions for residents, Australians remain confined to travelling within their own state or territory.

Just months ago, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison had hoped the border restrictions would be lifted by July, a hope that now seems abandoned in the wake of the second wave in Victoria.

There had been talks of a travel bubble with New Zealand but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has indicated that will first happen with the Cook Islands.