Minister for Tourism Dan Tehan says he is very keen to see cruising up and running again as quickly as possible, tied into the 80% vaccination target laid out in National Cabinet’s four-stage plan seen as a key threshold to allowing a resumption.
Media reports including from our friends at Travel Daily say that speaking on a webinar convened by Dave Sharma, Member of Parliament for Wentworth, Tehan is reported to have said in what is considered by many to be a rather buck-passing comment regarding the barriers in place, “What we need is to get the approval of the individual states and territories and approval of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC)…to get cruise ships up and running, above the current 100-passenger limit”.
He added, “I can’t give you a firm date, but my hope would be once we hit that 80% vaccination rate across the nation then we should be in a position to look very seriously at getting international cruising happening again here above that 100 passenger number.”
He also added, “Ultimately, in the end, the AHPPC will have a say in it…I can’t speak for them as you could understand,” but said that that from his point of view he was keen for a restart, adding, “We keep pressing the case as to why now, with the knowledge of COVID and the COVID-safe environment that you can put in place, and particularly with regard to vaccination certification, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be looking and planning for the resumption of international cruising once we hit that 80% vaccination rate.”
He also said, “We understand how important cruising is to this nation and we want to get that international cruising back as soon as we possibly can.”
While this may reassure some, we have heard these type of words from Minister Tehan before and nothing happened, so Minister Tehan, please stop the political spin, stop passing the buck on to the AHPPC and look at the facts that the cruise sector is more than ready, but even CLIA says the government has made no progress towards the resumption of cruising in Australia with independent experts saying that it could have started many months ago,
So, Minister Tehan, what is your plan, and what protocols do you want in place to restart cruising?
It is time to move forward!
A report by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor Global Travel Media and Global Cruise News
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