Grim forecast about when Australians can travel overseas
If you’re itching to travel overseas again, don’t get too excited just yet. The Treasurer has given an indication of when holidays will resume.
Jade Gailberger
Aussies are not expected to be able to travel overseas until late 2021, the Treasurer has confirmed after handing down the Federal Budget.
Speaking to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Josh Frydenberg said international borders would likely remain “largely closed off until late next year”.
The Treasurer said the Budget assumed domestic borders would reopen by December, but international travel would not be possible until there was a vaccine.
“International travel, including by tourists and international students, is assumed to remain largely closed off until late next year and then gradually return over time, and a vaccine to be available around the end of 2021 is one of the assumptions in the budget,” Mr Frydenberg told the National Press Club.
“We have taken every step possible to give Australia the best possible chance of getting a vaccine.
“Vaccine or not, the temporary and targeted measures in this Budget will create jobs and drive our economy.
“We know that the road out of this crisis will be unpredictable. We also know that this Budget outlines possible alternative upside and downside scenarios. We are taking nothing for granted.”
The Budget papers confirm that international tourism — both inbound and outbound — is expected to remain low until the latter part of 2021 and recover gradually.
The budget also assumes Western Australia will not reopen its border until April 2021 but other states and territories would reopen by the end of this year.
“Closed borders cost jobs so the quicker those borders are open in a COVID-safe way, the better, not just for those local communities and those particular states but across the country,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Earlier on Wednesday, NSW’s 12-day streak of no coronavirus cases from community transmission ended with three new cases.
This could delay Queensland’s plans to reopen its border to NSW, due to its 28-day zero community transmission policy.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday handed down the most important federal budget since the Second World War.
Mr Frydenberg has defended the Budget’s job-creating measures.
“The budget forecasts that almost 950,000 jobs will be created within the next four years,” he said.
“Vaccine or not, the temporary and targeted measures in this Budget will create jobs and drive our economic recovery,” he said.
Mr Frydenberg said it took nearly 10 years for the unemployment rate to return to pre-recession levels after the recession in the 1990s.
“For younger Australians, it took a remarkable 15 years. This time we are striving to do better,” he said.
“The quicker get people back to work, the stronger our economic recovery will be.
“There can be no economic recovery without a jobs recovery, and there can be no budget recovery without a jobs recovery.”
