• The Australain government is in “discussions” with a handful of governments to open up travel between their countries.
• Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Singapore, Japan, Korea, and the Pacific were all being considered.
• However, he cautioned that no decisions would be made lightly, suggesting that such arrangements are a while away.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Australians could face a growing shortlist of international holiday destinations, as the federal government considers new exemptions to the country’s effective travel ban.

As New Zealanders get ready to start visiting Australia again from this week, Scott Morrison revealed Australians may soon be given the chance to leave under new travel arrangements.

He said that he’d personally been speaking with the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of South Korea, and Pacific leaders, while Foreign Minister Marise Payne meanwhile had been in discussions with Singapore.

“There are a number of countries that have performed well on the health front and Australia and those countries are one of a handful of countries that have had the same level of success,” Morrison said.

“But we have to go cautiously, very, very cautiously. COVID-19 hasn’t gone anywhere.”

The Pacific, in particular, remains a sensitive topic, with New Zealand having not yet even recommenced flights.

While the island nations have so far managed to prevent the virus from spreading there, serious concerns remain over how their fragile healthcare systems would cope if travellers took it over.

Singapore meanwhile has been recording around 10 new cases a day, while Korea and Japan are recording several hundred each, albeit amongst much higher populations.

On the other hand, Europe has been accepting Australians for months, but only those who have been allowed to leave home have been able to take up the invitation.

With Australians unable to even fly to New Zealand quarantine-free under the new bubble, there are a couple of reasons why it’s worth taking the comments with a grain of salt.

For one, Morrison may be simply trying to soften the blow of having a one-way travel bubble in place.

More significant is the fact that the advice being given to the government is unlikely to change anytime soon.

“[Hard borders] should only be there as long as they have to be because you’ve got to balance the economics with the health and then they can be safely opened,” Morrison said.

“I hope that’s very soon, but that is not a decision for me to make.”

More to the point, the Federal Treasurer made it clear that the federal government assumed there would be no travel for another 12 months.

“International travel, including by tourists and international students, is assumed to remain largely closed off until late next year and then gradually return over time, and a vaccine to be available around the end of 2021 is one of the assumptions in the Budget,” Josh Frydenberg told the National Press Club.

No need to dust off the passport just yet then.

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