TRAVEL UPS & DOWNS

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison is under pressure to clarify when Australia’s international borders will reopen, as New Zealand once again opens its borders to NSW following the state’s recent COVID scare.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said the situation was “very confusing’’, especially for businesses.

THE government is under pressure to clarify when Australia’s international borders will reopen.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied reports the government had switched to an elimination strategy on COVID-19, closing Australia’s borders indefinitely.

And after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg flagged a reopening next year to ramp up migrant arrivals to the Nine newspapers, Labor leader Anthony Albanese on Monday demanded the government clarify its road map.

“Yesterday the headlines in all the papers people would have seen were: doors slam shut. This morning, it’s: doors are about to open,” he told 2GB.

“It’s very confusing. For the business community trying to get a handle on future investments, and where these issues are going, the government needs to keep a single message for 24 hours.”

Finance Minister

Simon

Birmingham said Australia’s tough border stance had helped it avoid the “grim picture” elsewhere, and the government would take a “cautious approach” to reopening the economy.

“None of it’s going to happen any earlier than safe to do so, because our border closures have been perhaps in arguably the single most important factor in keeping COVID out of Australia,” he told Sky News.

“We’re going to maintain those sorts of tough border control settings until it is clearly safe for us to (reopen).”

Nationals leader Michael McCormack refused to put a timeline on borders reopening.

“We will resume international travel when it is safe to do so and when the medical experts advise accordingly. That’s what we’ve done the whole way through,” he said.

“There’s no textbook that you can pull down from the shelf, open it up and say: This is how we address this particular issue or that.”

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said the regions needed migrants to fill jobs “Australians just don’t want to do”, and warned failing to facilitate their return would see inflation and interest rates spike.

“We have to make sure we get the farm workers in, the chefs in, that we get the people who clean the hospital rooms and clean the motel rooms in,” he told Sunrise.

“I hope that we get a flow of people as quickly as possible to fill the jobs that Australians just don’t want to do, so that we can get the economy absolutely humming.”