Chaos with Australia’s travel rules as NSW reopens international travelfrom November

The holiday season is gearing up to be a headache for Aussies as politicians rapidly drop borders or enforce the rules keeping them up.

It’s going to be a wild end to 2021 as Australia races towards freeing itself from the restrictions and lockdowns that have become commonplace over the past two years.

NSW made the biggest jump today when it announced any and all quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers - whether they’re from Australia or overseas - would be scrapped on November 1.

Victoria and NSW reopening borders to each other later this month also mean more than 60 per cent of Australia’s population will be able to go overseas from next month.

The change to the rules means anyone who can get into NSW will be able to fly overseas to destinations including London, Los Angeles and Bali, and return without quarantine, but NSW residents will still be banned from flying to places like Brisbane and Perth.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet had a dig at some of his closed-off counterparts today.

“I think people in NSW will be flying to Bali before Broome ... We need to rejoin the world. We can’t live here in hermit kingdom,” he said.

Confusion reigns as states and territories set their own rules

The decision to scrap quarantine in NSW is sparking massive debate - but it’s also leaving a lot of the population wildly confused.

Are you confused about COVID restrictions across the different states? Here's a handy (ahem) guide from the federal government pic.twitter.com/gOMGpvfJMp

— Katina Curtis (@katinacurtis) October 15, 2021

Awesome news from NSW Govt about not more caps and no more quarantine for fully vaccinated overseas arrivals. Time to move into a “living with Covid world” and away from our fortress mindset. Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Vic is still declaring Sydney a red zone 🤦🏻‍♂️

— Paul Bassat (@PaulBassat) October 14, 2021

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond welcomed NSW’s announcement today.

“Nobody coming to Australia for other business or a holiday or study is actively going to quarantine when they get there. It is not going to happen,” she said.

“In the first instance this really is about visiting friends and family and reconnecting with the ones you love. Secondly, it is going to be very much about university students, it’s going to be about bills we need to get the industry up and running, and not just ours, the whole range of others. And then it will be a bit more about the leisure and tourist and hopefully by that stage other states will have seen the light and we will have opened borders throughout the country.

Ms Osmond said, however, that “the devil is always in the detail” of Mr Perrottet‘s announcement and “we have only had conversations with government about where this may go”.

“Critically it is all about testing before you get on the plane and when you get off the plane. Some of those details are still to get worked out which is why this gap (of two weeks) is quite sensible.”

I am so proud to live in NSW where we have a Premier who understands that freedom and living with covid are not mutually exclusive. This is the first seriously brilliant decision by any leader in this country to move us forward. The Morrison government stands in the dust.

— janet albrechtsen (@jkalbrechtsen) October 15, 2021

NSW opening up. Meanwhile here in NZ fully vaccinated travellers with no COVID from Queensland go into MIQ, while we’re about to allow COVID positive people to self isolate at home https://t.co/cwGUlX8cxW

— Christopher GET VACCINATED Bishop (@cjsbishop) October 14, 2021

New South Wales

• Entry into Victoria will be allowed from October 19 via a permit system
• Sydneysiders will be banned from regional travel until November 1 to allow vaccination rates outside of Greater Sydney to rise over the next few weeks
• Hotel and home quarantine will end on November 1 for fully vaccinated travellers and Australians
• Hotel quarantine will remain for unvaccinated people with a weekly cap of 210 arrivals
• The regional ban includes the ACT, with NSW residents not permitted to enter Canberra
• The ACT has a border bubble with NSW which covers 27 postcodes and territory residents are permitted to travel to those areas for work, education, to access care and attend weddings and funerals among other reasons

Border restrictions across Australia and the world.

Queensland

• Queensland remains closed to the declared hot spots of NSW, Victoria and the ACT
• The border zone between northern NSW and southern Queensland was reinstated last week - Queenslanders travelling to, and residents of, Bourke Shire, City of Broken Hill, Kyogle, Lismore City, Richmond Valley, and the unincorporated Far West will be able to cross the border
• Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday hinted she wanted borders open before Christmas, imploring the state to get their first dose in the next six weeks - before November 17

Australian Capital Territory

• Restrictions remain in place for NSW and Victoria with permits required for ACT residents returning from elsewhere around Australia
• ACT residents travelling into NSW beyond border postcodes will be required to have an exemption prior to their return to the ACT and quarantine for 14 days

Victoria

• Victoria will welcome back NSW and ACT residents from next week
• Health Minister Martin Foley urged people to “take a chill pill” as questions are raised over Victoria not yet opening international travel but reopening

South Australia

• South Australia remains closed to NSW, ACT and Victoria
• Premier Steven Marshall said today the state wouldn’t open up until it hit 80 per cent double dose but said NSW’s plan to drop quarantine altogether would not disrupt his promise to reopen

Tasmania

• Tasmania is open to all states and territories except Victoria, NSW and the ACT due to their coronavirus outbreaks
• Premier Peter Gutwein warned last month he would not open the state to the rest of Australia until Tasmania hits 90 per cent double dose vaccination rate

Western Australia

• Western Australia remains closed to NSW, Victoria and the ACT
• It’s feared the state will not reopen to the rest of Australia until 2022 as its vaccination rates lag and cases rise in the eastern states

Northern Territory

• The Northern Territory is also suffering from lagging vaccination rates
  
• NSW, Victoria and the ACT are currently declared hot spots in the NT
• Chief Minister Michael Gunner said this week he expected border controls in the NT to begin being wound back from the end of November