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ABC News
ABC News
Politics
By political reporter Georgia Hitch

International flights still grounded but regional and local travel allowed

International travel will remain on hold for "the foreseeable future" as plans to open up local, regional and interstate travel are announced.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed National Cabinet's three-step plan for relaxing coronavirus restrictions which he said would hopefully be rolled out by July.

But while local and regional travel are set to resume first in step one, international travel is not part of any of the three steps.

"I can't see that happening anytime soon," Mr Morrison said.

"There's nothing on our radar which would see us opening up international travel in the foreseeable future."

Mr Morrison said there were "minor exceptions" where Border Force could provide exemptions, like for the New Zealand Warriors NRL team.

"It's a very limited set of circumstances," he said.

Those circumstances, outlined in step three, include considering cross-Tasman, Pacific island and international student travel.

"We're open to everything pretty much to get the Australian economy back and firing again as much as possible," Mr Morrison said.

"We just have to step through it carefully."

The Prime Minister said while he knew other countries were discussing it, it was not on the cards for Australia.

But the announcement from National Cabinet of its "Roadmap to a COVIDSafe Australia" plan did outline when people would be able to travel domestically.

Step one, which some states and territories have already entered, allows for "local and regional travel".

If everything goes smoothly in that step after three weeks, some jurisdictions may move to step two, where "some interstate travel" is allowed.

"In step three, we're hopeful that there will be more travel around the country," Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said.

"We may start to get some domestic tourism again."

If everything goes to schedule, most jurisdictions should be at stage three in six weeks' time.

But the Mr Morrison made it clear the decision to open borders or remove quarantine periods for people traveling interstate lay with individual premiers and chief ministers, and would depend on the current virus numbers in each area.

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