Chief medical officers tasked with drawing up plans to reopen Australia’s global borders

Australian medical experts will draw up plans to reopen the country’s international border and allow more people to enter the country without quarantine.

Health Minister Greg Hunt, left, with Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly in Canberra on Friday. Picture: Gary Ramage

Medical experts will draw up plans to reopen the international border and allow more people to enter the country without quarantine.

Scott Morrison and the ­national cabinet on Friday moved to significantly open up the economy just days after a two-way travel bubble with New Zealand was ­announced.

National cabinet asked Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee to set up ­parameters for opening up to low-risk countries such as Singapore and Japan, and an eventual opening up to the whole world.

The Prime Minister and the ­national cabinet also moved to ease nationwide restrictions on ­indoor venues and stadiums, and began a shift away from snap state border closures.

Professor Kelly and the AHPPC will determine how many people need to be vaccinated and the risk profiles of certain countries in a bid to open Australia’s borders and allow travellers to quarantine at home or avoid it ­entirely.

Mr Morrison said the AHPPC advice on international borders would give the national cabinet a road map to a position where Australia could treat COVID-19 like the flu and reopen to the rest of the world.

“The message from national cabinet is we want to open up more, we want to do it safely, we want to ease restrictions,” Mr Morrison said.

“We want to do that in a consistent way across the country and we want to do that ­because we know we are not just managing the health, but we are managing the economics.”

Mr Morrison reiterated his desire to look at other low-risk countries with which Australia could establish New Zealand-style travel bubbles, but warned a greater reopening to the whole world would still take months.

“At this point we do not have the evidence to support the position on transmissibility,” he said.

“That’s the critical factor that relates to the ability to change how we would do quarantine. That’s an important factor in allowing people to travel overseas, and borders and so on.”

Mr Morrison’s moves to ­reduce domestic restrictions are also designed to revitalise the economy. Stadiums will now open to full capacity where there is ticketed seating, and the national maximum requirement for social distancing at indoor venues will be one person per 2sq m — a significant relaxation from the 4sq m rule imposed throughout the pandemic.

State and territory leaders agreed in principle at Friday’s ­national cabinet meeting to shift away from snap internal border closures.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said businesses would wait to see if premiers such as Western Australia’s Mark McGowan stuck with the national cabinet agreement or continued to close borders ad hoc.

“Snap city or statewide shutdowns remain the greatest risk for business so it’s welcome to hear the states talking about prioritising local responses to COVID outbreaks,” Mr Willox said.

“But their actions will speak louder than words.”

Mr Willox said medical ­experts must prepare a plan to open the international border and ­ensure it stayed open.

“Any health advice on reopening options should be based on the premise that once the borders open they will stay open,” he said. “Otherwise travel will continue to be very risky and the benefits of reopening could be quickly lost with a snap closure.

“Every day our borders remain closed means another day of lost economic opportunities.”

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting chief executive Jenny Lambert said it was time to lift international ­arrival caps as vaccinated Australians and foreigners should no longer be treated as high-risk.

“ACCI has been saying for many months now to various arms of government that we should be assessing arrivals ­according to risk and managing our quarantine arrangements ­accordingly,” Ms Lambert said.

“This does involve genuine partnerships with the state and territory governments to deliver arrivals beyond their current caps, which are all set as if every traveller is high-risk.”