You might have heard the news, the overseas travel ban has been extended until at least September 17, 2020. At least, according to certain media outlets…
The Australian wrote that the extension was quietly rolled out mid-May as the original legislation was due to expire on June 17.
As someone who can’t wait to start flying around again, I found this rather annoying. It also made me wonder; is this true? Surely there would have been some press from the government on this?
Now, I might be completely wrong. After all, I’m just a blogger. I’m far from a good writer, definitely not a journalist; English isn’t even my first language! And this article isn’t even behind a fancy paywall.
However, after doing a little bit of reading on the official Australian Government website where all the legislations and updates of such documents get posted, I concluded that the rumours being spread by The Australian, Daily Mail, Sky News and others aren’t correct.
What’s going on with this Australian travel ban?
As it turns out, there are 2 separate pieces of legislation which came into effect on March 25. The first one is for cruise travel; the second one is for overseas travel.
As it turns out, on May 25 there was an amendment to one of the legislative documents in force. Guess which one?
The one for overseas travel? Nowp.
Greg Hunt (the minister of health) amended the “[Biosecurity (Human Biosecurity Emergency) “Human Coronavirus with Pandemic Potential) (Emergency Requirements for Cruise Ships) Determination 2020”.
That’s the legislation relating to CRUISE SHIPS!
Now I’m not saying that the “ Biosecurity (Human Biosecurity Emergency) (Human Coronavirus with Pandemic Potential) (Overseas Travel Ban Emergency Requirements) Determination 2020“ won’t be extended (let’s face it, it probably will), but let’s stick to the facts. And right now those facts are that we don’t know when international travel might be opened up.
You can find the legislation + it’s amendment here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/F2020L00267
And you can find the one which relates to overseas travel here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306
Why does it matter?
First of all: fake news! Second, I’m pretty sure that behind the scenes there’s a lot of work being done to open up travel to select “COVID safe” countries. Those routes might come online much earlier than September, so to say that overseas travel is entirely off the cards until then is false. Once again, this is the case at the time of writing, and for all we know, the legislation might be extended in a few days.
Conclusion?
I think It’s very likely the overseas travel ban will be extended, but until that’s an actual fact; we can all keep dreaming.
