A joint media conference with PM Scott Morrison, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was held at a Sydney Airport hangar this morning. Morrison told reporters that the federal government is in the final stages of concluding an arrangement with the Singapore Government that will see Australia reopening its borders with Singapore more quickly.
Mine’s still valid until 2026, so I’m not needing to renew any time soon. In fact I’ve been often using that as ID to check into hotels.
Reminds me of the time I first got my passport, I was actually pretty fortunate that I applied in Melbourne rather than back at home. Had to get my birth certificate and I was in Melbourne for Marathon weekend at the time with Monday off for my own leisure. Scrounged together enough points and a couple of weeks later my passport was in my hands.
Yeah a great spot and one of the coolest towns (literally and figuratively) in Australia in summer. Unfortunately my one and only visit coincided with the folk festival on the March long weekend, so will have to go back. I only realised this when I tuned to PBS FM on my way down and they mentioned it!
It is becoming a sort of cool climate version of Byron Bay though…with property price rises to match. Hopefully it doesn’t get uber-commercialised.
The Australian Government has stated that our crew needs to have been in the South Island for the preceding 14 days before quarantine-free flying. As our main crew group is based out of Auckland, this is unfortunately not viable.
With Auckland still in lockdown and on COVID alert level 3, it is not possible to move some of the crew members to Wellington and Christchurch without getting exemptions from the NZ Government.
Lonely Planet today unveiled its top 10 countries, cities and regions to visit next year, with our very own Scenic Rim taking out the Number 8 spot in the region category in an exciting coup for the sunshine state.
The Federal Department of Health has announced the need for arrivals from New Zealand to spend 14 days in quarantine would end at 11.59pm tonight. However, quarantine-free travel will only apply to Kiwis arriving in Sydney and Melbourne, and they will also need to be fully vaccinated with a vaccine approved by the TGA, have spent the past 14 days in NZ, and have a negative PCR test result within three days of the departure.
Australia will reopen quarantine-free entry to fully vaccinated Singaporeans from 21 November.
The two governments have agreed that Singaporeans departing from Singapore can travel to Australia without having to quarantine after arrival. There will be no requirement to have spent 14 days in Singapore prior to departure.
Last week, Singapore announced Australia would be included in its vaccinated travel lanes arrangements. Fully vaccinated Australians will be able to enter the country without quarantining from 8 November.
It’ll be very interesting to see if the same setup is adopted as was for NZ earlier in the year considering it’s a formal two-way bubble. It seems unlikely considering Singapore’s current COVID situation, but stranger things have happened.
You can tell how political this is considering there are some many pacific island countries australia could have done this arrangement with - or at least offered quarantine free travel to them - before Singapore.
