Even though Health Minister Greg Hunt said some time ago that cruising and international travel would restart at the same time, while international travel is restarting in a couple of weeks, a decision still remains to be made related to cruising, with it appears the government has reneged on that statement.
The key comment to emerge from the National Cabinet meeting last week was PM Scott Morrison announcing the Commonwealth will work with key states to revive cruising from Australian ports “over the coming months”, in a decision that will also open the door for international cruise ships to return to Australian shores.
Is saying ”in the coming months” the best he can do as the industry continues to hemorrhage and more ships are being redeployed from Australia to other countries where cruising is allowed and quite frankly appears to be a great deal easier to operate than in Australia.
It is shocking and appalling that the Commonwealth only now, two years since the pandemic kicked off is saying it will work with key states to revive cruising from Australian ports “over the coming months”.
This has to beg the question of what discussions have been going on over the last two years and in addition, the discussions referred to by government and even CLIA as having taken place, clearly now cannot have been to “work with key states to revive cruising from Australian ports”?
With cruising having restarted to thousands of ports around the world and around 300 ships already cruising with clear protocols in place, why is it only now that the Australian Federal Government is beginning its discussions with the states!
In addition, while it appears Victoria, NSW and Queensland have agreed to work on plans to restart the industry once Commonwealth COVID-19 biosecurity controls are scrapped, Morrison continued his abdication of responsibility for the restart of cruising saying, “National Cabinet discussed the resumption of cruises in Australia, noting that there are shared responsibilities for the resumption of cruises between the Commonwealth, states, and territories”, with it now clear that states and territories will have the final say about when cruise ships will be allowed to operate in their jurisdictions. What a mess!
If ever there was a weak statement that will put any cruise company off ever operating in Australia or visiting Australia this may be it, with again differences between state and territory governments going to often simply make it too hard to operate in Australia.
In the meantime, Carnival Australia and P&O Cruises Australia amazingly described the national cabinet decision as a breakthrough, with Marguerite Fitzgerald, President of Carnival Australia saying the decision for the three eastern States to work with the cruise industry on a restart was a breakthrough development for the resumption of cruising in Australia.
I may have missed something here as Morrison did not say the states would be working with the cruise industry but the Commonwealth with the states, with one state, NSW single-handedly responsible for the Ruby Princess debacle in the first place.
In the meantime, even more amazingly the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has decided the current wave of Omicron cases in Australia warrants a further extension of the emergency period, and therefore Minister Greg Hunt has extended Australia’s pandemic emergency measures, including the human biosecurity period which bans international cruise ships, until 17 April 2022.
This is despite the Federal Government at the National Cabinet only last Thursday saying it would work with the states to work with the cruise industry.
What an absolute mess and these politicians expect us to believe them?
Edited by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor
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