Federal reasserted NSW quarantine plan

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reasserted his authority over Australia’s international border in the wake of a bold move by the new NSW Premier to open the state “to the world” in a fortnight to fully vaccinated travellers.

Addressing the drawn-out, sensitive dilemma of the more than 45,000 stranded Australians overseas, Mr Morrison slapped down Dominic Perrottet’s reopening plan which is to start on November 1, stressing that Australian citizens, residents and their families were to be prioritised in any resumption of commercial flights.

And in a long-awaited shift, the Prime Minister announced the definition of immediate family would be expanded to include the parents of Australian citizens, a welcome relief to many separated families.

“We are not opening up to everyone coming back to Australia at the moment. I want to be clear about that,” Mr Morrison said.

“We are gonna take this forward in a staged and careful way as we’ve done all of these things.

“It’s for the Commonwealth government, the federal government to decide when the border opens and shuts at a national level and we will do that. In the first instance, it will be for Australians, Australian residents and their families. We’ll see how that goes. And then we’ll move to the other priorities.”

Parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents will now be classified as immediate family, allowing them to travel to Australia in states and territories that have reached 80 per cent full vaccination targets. Many families have desperately sought this change over the past 18 months.

Neither the Prime Minister nor his office were given advance notice of the NSW announcement. Major airlines were also understood not to be in the loop.

Mr Perrottet neither confirmed nor denied he had the Prime Minister’s agreement on the plan. He did say there had been numerous discussions and that returning Australians would “naturally be the first cab off the rank”.

Regardless, Mr Perrottet and NSW Minister for Tourism Stuart Ayres said they wanted tourists and overseas workers as part of the plan. But it is not NSW that issues visas. It is the Commonwealth.

“The Premier understands that is a decision for the Commonwealth government not for the state government and when we believe that is a decision to make, we will make it in that time,” Mr Morrison said.