Opening of the Australian International Border
Senator VAN: Good morning, Mr Pezzullo, it's good to see you again. You touched on some parts of this in your opening statement, but can you further outline what ABF/Home Affairs are doing to prepare for the reopening of the international borders this week?
Mr Pezzullo: Indeed. I might hand to the chief operating officer, Ms Saunders, who's joined the department from the Australian Border Force since we last met. Prior to that, she had a distinguished senior career in the Australian Federal Police. Our chief operating officer, Ms Saunders, is also responsible for integrating our border measures work—in short, building on the various reopening tranches that were announced late last year and principally came into effect on 1 November There's a further reopening that effectively applies to all vaccinated temporary visitors, and there will be rules and thresholds around vaccination exemption and the rest of it, which no doubt we'll get to through the course of the day. I might just on that note hand to Ms Saunders. Particularly you're looking ahead to the 21st; is that right?
Ms Saunders: Obviously 21 February will be a significant milestone in reopening of the border in terms of now opening up the border to all visa holders who are now vaccinated, in short. So what that means is we're opening up for a significant number of visitors to Australia—particularly the tourist industry, as well as other business sectors—to arrive, and we're well positioned to receive them. I guess the other important step in this arrangement is clarity in relation to what the standards are for those that travel to Australia and what the definition of vaccination has been, and obviously ATAGI has provided clarity in the previous week in regard to those requirements. What that simply means is for international passengers the definition of fully vaccinated remains as it has been—that is, you've had two vaccinations recognised by ATAGI, or one in the case of Johnson & Johnson. It also means that you can arrive with those standards. Nothing has changed there. Of course what ATAGI has done though in that time is clarify that domestically to stay up to date you're now requiring a booster, so that has been an important clarification as well that has occurred in the previous week. But obviously ABF will talk further in regard to the preparations they have put in place to support the 21 February step. Critical to that will be the establishment and implementation of the digital passenger declaration, which the senator made reference to earlier, which will start tomorrow and which will be another important step to ensure that we have digitised seamless processes for passengers to draw upon when travelling to Australia.
Senator VAN: Thank you so much, and congratulations on the new role. Can you run us through some of the technical challenges you think we might face?
Ms Saunders: In terms of technical challenges, based on our engagement with industry, this is actually a very welcome step. In fact it simplifies processes insofar as not requiring the various technical fixes to identify passengers that might not meet the requirements of Australia, which have been quite complex over previous months, noting that you could come to Australia if you're fully vaccinated but only if you had particular visas and had come from countries such as Singapore, Japan and New Zealand, where we had special arrangements in place for safe travel zones. So this actually simplifies the process both for passengers and for industry and has been warmly welcomed by them.
Senator VAN: What engagement have Home Affairs and the ABF had with airlines and airports on the infrastructure to do with travel?
Ms Saunders: That has been critically important throughout the entire process of reopening. We meet with industry weekly to work through issues that they're identifying through the processing of passengers, preparing them for changes in the health policy settings and visa requirements, so that's been very productive. In addition to that verbal engagement we've been providing regular written updates for industry to use so that all their staff are well positioned to support the next steps.
Senator VAN: How does the work of ABF/Home Affairs align to the national plan to transition Australia's COVID response?
Ms Saunders: It is well aligned. Obviously this has been at the direction of government decisions, so we're still in phase 2 of the plan and rolling out what is referred to as tranche 3 of the steps within phase 2—so not in phase 3 yet but certainly working through phase 2.
Senator VAN: How will the new systems you've mentioned that we'll have in place at the border operate compared, say, to pre-pandemic?
Ms Saunders: Once again the intent would be that it is simpler for passengers. Initially what they'll see—and certainly we have colleagues that can speak in more detail in this regard—is the digital passenger declaration. However, what it will mean is that for those who have been using the ATD it will be a fairly seamless shift to the use of the DPD. It will collect the same information of passengers—health information and the like—to inform states and territories, so that will continue as it is. But then the DPD will evolve to also integrate other important information, including the incoming passenger card, over future months, so once again the intent is that technology will support a more seamless process for passengers.
Senator VAN: What is the volume of travellers that you're expecting from next Monday?
Ms Saunders: That's quite unpredictable, to be honest. Currently we're seeing about 10,000 passengers a day, which is an increase from the 1,000 we were seeing when we'd literally closed much of the borders. But it is still quite unpredictable, noting the changeable arrangements around the globe. Some countries, as you know, are still recommending against travel to Australia because of the impact of omicron domestically. There is pending advice from airlines as to what they propose to do in terms of increasing their commercial routes and flight numbers. It is still unpredictable, but we are very optimistic based on the increase in requests for visas over recent months, particularly over recent weeks, about seeing a stark increase over the coming months.
Mr Pezzullo: If you have any further interest in more specific data and details, under program 3.2, border management, the commissioner and his officers might have a more granular view. The department handles high-level strategy and policy, and we support the ABF with the deployment of the technology known as the DPD. In terms of the day-to-day management of the primary line, the flow through airports, Commissioner Outram I know has some information that you might find of interest and that might be best dealt with under 3.2.
Senator VAN: I will come back to it then.
Mr Pezzullo: Thank you. If you wish.
Full transcript here.
