Scott Morrison will use a national cabinet meeting on Tuesday to urge premiers and chief ministers to stick to reopening plans in the wake of the Omicron variant.
The prime minister said he and other state and territory leaders "weren't spooked" by the new variant, ahead of the meeting.
He said it was critical leaders were all on the same page when it came to Omicron.
"The purpose of this afternoon's meeting is so that we all can know what the variant is and what the risks are and are not," Mr Morrison told reporters on Tuesday.
"What's important is we have a booster program, and we have ample vaccines to do that."
While the government has paused the arrival of visa holders until December 15, the prime minister said other aspects of the reopening plan for overseas arrivals had not been affected.
The date has also been pushed back for a travel bubble with Japan and South Korea.
"This is not a reason to step back, but for a moment we will pause for further information before that next step," Mr Morrison said.
"None of us want to do those long quarantines, what we did last night was to protect against that."
The federal government hopes Australia can continue reopening to the world after a two-week pause as authorities mull bringing booster shots forward.
"Our overwhelming view is that whilst it's an emerging variant, it's a manageable variant," Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Canberra.
"All of this is done on the presumption that we will recommence from December 15, but medical advice will guide our decision making throughout."
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is looking at whether to recommend booster COVID-19 shots sooner.
They are currently recommended for six months after a second vaccine dose.
"That process has started. Certainly we haven't received any advice," Mr Hunt said.
Final approval is also pending on vaccines for children aged between five and 11.
"At this stage, there are no red flags and we're expecting that to occur in the coming weeks," Mr Hunt said.
"The guidance that we've set on the basis of ATAGI advice is that we would begin that in early January."
Five cases of the Omicron variant have been confirmed - four in NSW and one at the Northern Territory's Howard Springs quarantine facility.
"We know it's transmissible. We don't know still about the vaccine effectiveness. We don't know about severity and there's mixed reports on that from South Africa," Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said.
"We are continuing along our suppression strategy. This is part of that. This is a temporary pause so we can get that information that we need."
Australia is already shut to non-citizens from eight southern African nations.
"We will be working to ensure that we will open our borders as soon as we possibly can," Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said.
Nearly 87 per cent of Australians aged 16 and older are fully vaccinated.
Victoria has reported 918 new daily infections and six more deaths.
NSW recorded 179 additional cases and three more deaths on Tuesday.
There were six new cases in the ACT.
