More Australians stranded overseas will be able to return home from September 27, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced.
Following Friday's National Cabinet, Mr Morrison said an agreement had been reached to increase the limits on international arrivals.
"We want to see Australians be able to get home," he said of the almost 25,000 Australians stuck overseas.
Mr Morrison announced that NSW will take an additional 500 arrivals per week from September 27.
Queensland and Western Australia will initially take an additional 200 arrivals per week from September 27. This will be increased to 500 arrivals per week from October 4 in Queensland and October 11 in Western Australia.
Mr Morrison promised the states would have support from the Commonwealth to manage the increased arrivals, including the defence force to manage quarantine needs.
Former secretary of the Health and Finance Departments Jan Halton has undertaken a review of Australia's quarantine systems which Mr Morrison said had returned very positive findings about the standards of quarantine around the country. These findings helped to justify the decision to increase international arrivals.
Mr Morrison said the smaller states and territories, including the ACT, had agreed to assist the Commonwealth return Australians by accepting chartered flights.
"We understand that, for the reasons of putting the strain on quarantine capacity, we had to limit the number of people that could come in on flights over the last couple of months," the Prime Minister said.
"But with the improvements and with the success that we've had as a country in recent months, we can start opening that up again and we can start helping Australians get home again."
Mr Morrison said the government was working towards allowing New Zealanders and Australians arriving from New Zealand into the country without hotel quarantine.
He said about 15 per cent of the Australians attempting to return home were in New Zealand and allowing them in without hotel quarantine would free up space for more returned travellers.
The Prime Minister also commended the ACT's home quarantine system for people entering the territory from Victoria. He said it was an option other jurisdictions could use for domestic travellers to free up space in hotel quarantine for Australians still overseas.
Another agreement from the National Cabinet meeting was to implement mandatory data collection on domestic flights which would assist contact tracing in the event of a positive case of coronavirus.
He said arrangements were being put in place between the government and airlines to collect the name, email address, a mobile contact number, and a state of residence of all travellers moving around Australia.
Mr Morrison said it was good news travel had been opened up between Queensland and the ACT.
He said the National Cabinet had agreed testing rates needed to be improved and Western Australia was moving to introduce sewage testing.
NSW will introduce paid pandemic leave for those that have tested positive to coronavirus and Queensland is expected to follow suit shortly.
The telehealth program has been extended for a further six months to the end of March 2021 with a $2 billion commitment to the program.
Mr Morrison said this was particularly significant for mental health services.
The National Cabinet will next meet on October 16, skipping the meeting in a fortnight's time so the Commonwealth could focus on the October 6 budget.
