Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sounded a positive note as he talked about the possibility of grey nomads and other travellers being able to move freely around the country before too long.
Mr Morrison said that, as various restrictions start to ease, ‘borders will fall’ across Australia, and domestic tourism will take off again.
“Australians can hopefully soon return to domestic holidays and to move around the country more widely, and particularly with school holidays coming up again in July,” he said. “I had that discussion with the Minister for Tourism this week and to work with Tourism Australia and the other state and territory agencies that are responsible for tourism, to focus on seeing that realised as our domestic tourism industry gets back on its feet.”
With international tourism closed off for the foreseeable future, domestic tourism will be even more important for a pandemic-ravaged economy.
Last week, National Cabinet agreed on a three-stage approach to lift restrictions and all states and territories have been moving through stage one.
According to the framework, stage two of eased restrictions will allow for some interstate recreational travel along with the opening of campgrounds and caravan parks. Stage three will allow for most interstate travel.
The Prime Minister said the fact that the states and territories were embracing stage one was positive for the future.
“It is, I think, a welcome sign that we are on the road back,” he said.
Earlier today, the New South Wales Tourism Minister, Stuart Ayres, accused other states of hindering Australia’s economic recovery with their border closures.
He said the risk of transferring the bug through domestic travel “is low” and called on the governments in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania to scrap their travel bans by July 1.
“The simple matter of the fact is, we can’t stay closed forever,” he said. “If states believe they can keep their economies functional while keeping their borders closed, I think that’s a mistake.”
Hi. Does anyone know the total length of the Rough Rider Vacationer 19.6 together with it’s drawbar? We put a deposit on this RV thinking the total length would comply with 7.49 suburban street parking road rule 200 NSW but now have conflicting information.
Given the way NSW made a mess of the passengers departing the Ruby Princess, i.e. allowing passengers to move freely with no isolation, I am confident our (WA) Premier will completely ignore any request from some NSW Tourism Minister (Stuart Ayres).
No leave the wa border closed until the virus over there is all clear we don’t want them coming here and giving us here in wa the infectious disease KEEP THE WA BORDER CLOED at least until October or longer..
The sad thing is it will never be clear. The best we can hope for is a vaccine. This will be forever & nobody knows what the new normal is, but we will never go back to life as we knew it!
Covid 19…like the Flu virus, will be with us forever.