It doesn't matter if the border are open or not, we over 50's are not travelling anyway. Everyone I have spoken to about it states straight off the bat, oh yes! I can hardly wait, then when you ask what if you get sick and then the answers that matter come out. Oh well I would have to be vaccinated, why I say what if there isn't one. then there are new questions, if I get infected, where will I be treated, how will I be treated, who's paying for that and most importantly how do I get home. So there you have your answer, we won't be travelling for quite a while yet and most of our young people can't afford to anyway. This means there isn't going to be cruise ships and airliners filled with tourists anytime soon.

Media reports indicate that it was because the Victoria Police Union was unimpressed with the idea of military personnel performing certain roles in quarantine hotels. Seriously. Great to see that even in these times the Andrews government can be held
to ransom by public sector unions.

Dan Andrews used to be indecisive but now he is not so sure.

Amongst the bunch of my parents friends - all over 65, and most over 70, the attitude is a little different - as intrepid travellers, they’re chomping at the bit to get out and “live” again - being holed up is worse than a death sentence for them..

Thankfully the world is made up of all types!

The Northern Territory have announced they will push through with their July 17 open date, but will not allow visitors from areas deemed hotspots (requiring a statutory declaration to be filled out).

This seems like a good strategy to manage the health risks of opening the borders.

Maybe requiring an ID check upon arrival to bolster this policy would be worth pursuing.

And another good CFA Leader gone too thanks to his Union pandering...anyway, I recall how good it was to have all State & Fed Govt. leaders working towards the same goal. That seems to have gone by the wayside now.:(

In total agreement with you here! So many 'Aussies' come from so many other countries (my own family included) yet can't travel in the foreseeable future. Especially now as a lot of the rest of the world has realised that we're going to have to live with this virus (with it's very low mortality rate) and there may never be a vaccine or cure!

I have no problem with people travelling. As long as they sign up for a 14 day stay at their cost in a ‘guarded hotel’ on their return. Be good for the local hotel industry. Plus they will need to pay for any medical bills they incur as no travel insurance will cover them.
No exceptions on the 14 day in a hotel room. People can’t be trusted to stay at home in self quarantine.
Do they want to go with that rule set in place?

Maybe they should apply for an exemption? It took minutes and I’m only a PR of another country. If your relatives are from other countries then they don’t even have to apply. They can leave on the other countries passport.

That's exactly my point, they are all saying that, yeah bring it on lets go, until you present them with, what will you do if you become infected in a foreign country.
No Insurance cover
No Health Care
Possibly hospitalised
Not allowed to travel even if you are physically able
All at you own cost

What they say they will do and what they will do when presented with the opportunity are two very different things.

Truer words have never been spoken.

However, you will still get the short sighted that wont give it a thought and they'll potentially reap what they sow in some far away land. The airlines wont mind.. They've got your dollars! :E

What you are describing is the Bridging Visa E, this border closure is much less restrictive than the BVE that can never get travel rights..

The mortality rate in Australia is fairly low, not so in many other countries. Closed cases of Covid-19 World Wide is a 9% mortality rate, recently improved from 12% last week.

Of course they want to do it safely - things will settle down and improve, faster than most expect, and solutions to the problems will surface one way or another.

I realise this is a great place for the doom and gloom paraders, but I think things will improve quicker than most anticipate.

We have been dealing with with virus properly for about 3 months. A lot has changed in that time, a lot more will
change in the next 3-6months.

The solution to the problem is a vaccine, so two years of international border closures is realistic at this point along with a deep and long global recession. The effects of which will be felt in about 3 months.

No, “a” solution is a vaccine. If we get 2, 3 or 5 years down the track without a vaccine, what then?

In the absence of a vaccine and unless the virus is eradicated by stopping it's transmission, we'll be back to the days when no-one went on overseas holidays.

I don’t think people are getting the main problem here. All the talk of statistics, case fatality rates, R-noughts etc is well and good, but that’s not what’s driving discourse at the moment. Taking some recent headlines straight off the news.com.au page (yes it’s tabloid but it’s also what a lot of Australians read so...):

“Expecting up to 25 cases: Hundreds Flying In From Virus Hotspots”
“Returned Travellers Refusing Virus Tests”
“Surprise Party Infects 18 Guests”
“Scary 9 Day Virus Milestone”
“This Virus Isn’t Going Anywhere”

ANY new cases of this virus are being treated as a tabloid media tragedy. To the point where the media have lost all focus on any rational plans to live with this virus, and solely create headlines to scare the public which politicians in turn have to react to. People obviously want something close to eradication.

Victoria has 29 new cases and media reports it as an utter disaster. Yesterday Germany had 500 new cases, Spain 400, Italy 200 and France 300 but over there things are getting back to normal, borders are reopening without restriction and airlines are flying again. I’m sure the lack of fearmongering news sites like news.com.au helps with their mindset

Your previous predictions of Australia’s outbreak being worse than Europe and the US, and the complete worldwide closure of all borders for a month didn’t even come close to fruition, so Nostradamus you are not.

While a vaccine may never be found, what is as important is the further progression of effective treatments, and considering the time, money and effort spent researching those at the moment and how far they’ve already come in only 3 or 4 months, I feel they will be the key to things improving going forward.

Never volunteer and never be the first. If in 5 years from now those recovered cases need to be permanently strapped to an O2 bottle just for some sort of normality or there are any fertility issues arising, that's an even bigger problem and not just to our health system. Lets keep the numbers low until we know what we're dealing with and what acceptable risk is. Dying from it only appears to be the biggest risk at this point.

And never make sweeping statements.