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International students and skilled workers should still make plans to come to Australia, senior ministers say, even after the federal government made the snap decision on Monday night to pause Wednesday’s reopening plans for these groups.
Further public health measures including mask-wearing and social distancing will be “actively discussed” at high-level meetings on Tuesday over the Omicron COVID-19 variant of concern, with five cases confirmed so far in Australia.
“We are committed to continue to reopen,” says Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, with Health Minister Greg Hunt and Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the decision to keep the border shut to certain visa holders was proportionate.
“What we’ve done is follow the medical advice,” he said. “Australia has dealt with challenges and we’re ready for this, we’re able to deal with this, and we want to give Australians that confidence.”
The border was set to reopen on December 1 for visa holders including international students and skilled workers, and the travel bubble was also set to resume with Japan and South Korea.
On Monday evening, following advice from Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly, the senior government ministers in the national security committee of federal cabinet decided to pause that reopening until December 15 to allow health authorities to gather more information about the new strain.
On Tuesday, the country’s health ministers will meet to discuss the variant and the chief health officers will also meet ahead of national cabinet late in the afternoon.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the decision to defer the reopening was not taken lightly, and the government was “acutely aware” of the impact it would have on people, families and businesses.
“We have been very focused on doing all we can to open our international borders as safely but as quickly as we possibly can do,” she said. “I do want to stress that this is a 14-day pause and we are working to ensure that we can open our borders as soon as we possibly can.”
The federal government expected 200,000 international students, skilled workers and other select visa holders to enter the country over December and January.
Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said 130,000 higher education students stuck offshore were anxiously hoping to return to Australia for semester one next year.
“We understand this delay is challenging for students and universities. It’s important to acknowledge the incredible resilience of those who have waited patiently for up to two years to resume their studies on campus,” Ms Jackson said.
Mr Hunt said the government would also take action if needed in the case of future variants of concern.
“If actions are needed we will take them, that’s been our approach. But the direction of the country is on the national plan, and that’s opening up,” he said.
Professor Kelly said the country’s chief health officers continued to meet daily to discuss the latest data on the variant, with signs still showing it caused mild symptoms, but more work was needed.
The effectiveness of vaccines against Omicron was one of the main concerns, he said, but the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and national cabinet meetings would also be looking at public health measures in response to the strain.
“We do know it’s transmissible. We don’t know still about the vaccine effectiveness. We don’t know about severity,” he said. “This is a temporary pause so we can get that information that we need.”
Ms Andrews said prospective international students and skilled migrants should still consider coming to Australia.
“This government has done an enormous amount of work to reopen our international borders,” she said. “We haven’t taken a step back with this deferral. We are actually keeping in place the settings that we have already announced.”
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