Australian Govt Says No Plans to Re-Open Border Until Mid-2022 Despite Mounting Pressure
MELBOURNE Australia is sticking to plans to start re-opening to the rest of the world only from the middle of next year, officials said on Sunday, resisting mounting pressure to end the closure of international borders.
In March 2020, Australia closed its borders to non-nationals and non-residents and has since been allowing only limited international arrivals, mainly citizens returning from abroad.
“All the way through we will be guided by the medical advice,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a televised briefing. “We will be guided by the economic advice.”
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Australia is sticking to plans to start re-opening to the rest of the world only from the middle of next year, officials said on Sunday, resisting mounting pressure to end the closure of international borders.
In March 2020, Australiaclosed its borders to non-nationals and non-residents and has since been allowing only limited international arrivals, mainly citizens returning from abroad.
“All the way through we will be guided by the medical advice,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a televised briefing. “We will be guided by the economic advice.”
Earlier in the day, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) that the medical advice to keep the borders closed had ‘served us very well through this crisis’.
Keep tough bail laws, says police union, as Greens try to wind them back
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Victoria’s powerful police union has strongly opposed weakening bail laws that have helped contribute to an explosion in the state’s prison population, and has demanded both sides of politics declare their position on the issue ahead of next year’s state election.
The call comes as the Greens prepare to table a bill this month aimed at winding back laws that were strengthened in response to the Bourke Street massacre, but which have led to record rates of imprisonment and a blowout in prison spending.
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A groundswell of opposition to Australiaâs protracted border closure is brewing among Morrison government MPs, with city-based politicians leading a push to reopen faster and give vaccinated people more freedom to travel.
Pushing for Australiaâs border to reopen sooner: Liberal MPs Jason Falinski, Tim Wilson and Dave Sharma.
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Leaked audio recordings also reveal Victoriaâs Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told healthcare workers last month the country must at some point abandon its Fortress Australia approach to COVID-19 and âmake a call on letting it runâ in order to reopen for tourists and international students.
Those comments echo remarks by former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth, revealed yesterday by the
Rachel was jailed for stealing an ice-cream. In Victoria. In 2020
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Last year, Rachel was jailed for six days for stealing an ice-cream â a $3.50 Bubble OâBill from a St Kilda convenience store.
It was the kind of minor transgression that might once have prompted a stern reprimand from a police officer or a magistrate, but this was 2020 and Rachel was remanded because sheâd committed an indictable offence while already on bail. So under laws that Premier Daniel Andrews had spruiked as the toughest in the country, she spent two days in the custody centre and four in Dame Phyllis Frost prison in Ravenhall.