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The Federal Government has not surprisingly extended the international border ban until June, with the extension, announced on Tuesday evening, taking Australia’s international border closure to 15 months, with Minister for Health Greg Hunt saying Australia’s borders will remain closed due to COVID-19 mutant variants overseas.

Hunt said the Governor-General had extended the “human biosecurity emergency period,” first imposed on March 17, 2020, to June 17 to “ensure the Australian government has the powers to take any necessary measures to continue to prevent and control COVID-19” and “The extension of the emergency period is informed by specialist medical and epidemiological advice provided by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) and Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer.”

He added, “The AHPPC has advised the Australian government the COVID-19 situation overseas continues to pose an unacceptable public health risk to Australia, including the emergence of more highly transmissible variants,” and “The extension of the emergency period for a further three months is about mitigating that risk for everyone’s health and safety.”

The extension also results in that hotel quarantine will remain in place until at least the middle of 2021 with expectations of it remaining for the rest of the year.

Simon Westaway of the Australian Tourism and Export Council said to The Age the decision was unsurprising but said the government needed to provide a road map for reopening the border now that vaccines were being administered, adding, “The time is nigh to consider a targeted reopening with key and willing markets”.

Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox, also in The Age, called for “certainty” on the international borders “as soon as possible”, adding, “We are a migrant nation,” and “Our skilled migrants have been a huge driver of our economy,” and “Without migration – and the certainty around it – we are diminished economically and culturally.”

An edited report by John Alwyn-Jones