ATIC Executive Director Simon Westaway told Sky News about 70,000 backpackers remained which was only half the number normally in Australia at any one time, while expectations placed between 20,000 and 30,000 still in the country heading into 2021. He said backpackers, as well as students, should be allowed to stay in the country longer to support associated industries, particularly those in regional areas.
Mr Westaway also said efforts were being made to work on existing travel bans and to lift the 4000 person cap on weekly international arrivals. “I think it’s important that we find a way of lifting that cap both symbolically and also importantly opens up the opportunity ultimately for backpackers to come back in the market,” he said.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)
If someone wants the tourism industry to go, the borders should be open to everyone who presents a negative COVID test, as it is done around Europe.
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Source: SkyNewsAust - 🏆 7. / 78 Read more »
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Federal government 'dragging their heels' on repatriating stranded Australians | Sky News AustraliaLabor MP Peter Khalil says the federal government has been “dragging their heels” on working to bring Australians stranded overseas back home. \n\nThe government indicated they would be willing to assist Australians to return home amid mounting pressure to use federal resources to do so, however, said it was up to the states to lift their travel caps and make room in hotel quarantine.\n\nMr Khalil told Sky News there was ample capacity available at hotels near airports. \n\n“These are Australian citizens, now I for the life of me don’t understand. You know the government underspent by $60 billion and they’re not prepared to spend a bit more to make sure Australians are brought over on charter flights,” he said. \n\n“Why can’t they start bringing people home.\n\n“The basic right of an Australian citizen to return to their home is actually being denied in this case and I think the government needs to do a lot better.” \n\nImage: Getty PeterKhalilMP Let them get home - we are not responsible PeterKhalilMP Mr Khalifa, do you know there is only McGowan’s Government issued G2G PASS for exemption to enter WA? But in reality it can block anyone as they want. Based on the facts that many applicants are unapproved. Can you request Mr McGowan to remove it before the caps lifted? inmyview
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Union support ebbing away from the Democrats: Annelise Nielsen in Duluth, Minnesota | Sky News AustraliaWhat’s surprising about Minnesota’s bold claim that it’s home to 10,000 lakes is the fact it’s actually true. Indeed, once you introduce the measure that a lake must cover at least 10 acres, the number jumps up to 11,842.\n\nAccording to official data, 84 per cent of North America's surface fresh water is right here in the Great Lakes. Duluth, Minnesota sits on the edge of Lake Superior, that spans so far and wide it feels like it might be on the edge of the world.\n\nThis port opened a tiny corner of North-east Minnesota, home to fur traders and loggers, to be a global starting point for the enormous iron reserves here.\n\nThe main streets bear the hallmarks of the industrial powerhouses that forged the American empire from their mineral reserves here. But it’s not just the rusted out rail cars and shuttered windows which signal that everything here might not be what it once was.\n\nBloody tissues and broken needles swept into the long grass hint at some of the deeper social divides that are sowing a re-emergence on social values in rural parts of America.\n\nThe traditional party line of unions voting democrat isn’t holding up here. And despite the pandemic, and a major hospital in the centre of the city, masks are still few and far between.\n\nNestled among the weather board homes built to withstand winters that dip below -20C, is the birth place of Bob Dylan. Plenty of the same building still stand in place from when the iconic singer lived here, but he would surely agree the times they are a changin’. Is it cold Be careful, there is violent Marxist uprisings over in that Country.
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Premier Andrews $3b support package is 'propaganda' and 'no real solution' | Sky News AustraliaRestaurateur Chris Lucas says Victorian Premier Daniel Andrew’s recent announcement of a business support package is just 'more spin, more rhetoric, and more propaganda' but offers no real solution.\n\nVictorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Sunday a $3 billion support package for businesses in the state in a bid to keep them afloat during the lockdowns. \n\nBusiness leaders say the stimulus package won’t even touch the sides, given how hard the premier’s lockdown measures have hit businesses in Melbourne. \n\n'Worse still, the support he offered last time hasn’t even yet been delivered,' Sky News host Peta Credlin said.\n\n“These announcements are no different to what’s been going on for the last months, it’s more spin and more rhetoric, more propaganda, but no real solutions quite frankly,” Mr Lucas told Sky News. \n\n“The $3 billion headline figure, $1.8 billion of it is deferred payroll tax, which quite frankly most small businesses in Victoria at the moment are probably not paying anyway because they haven’t been open for the last seven months.\n\n“So you know, there’s just no real solutions here and quite frankly I think everyone’s getting sick of the spin.”\n\nImage: News Corp Australia DanielAndrewsMP Perhaps he can do without the support then! Sick of these whingers 😠 DanielAndrewsMP Chris Lucas is a wage thief DanielAndrewsMP And news limited has the solutions I watch you all. You have so much venom.....You are never happy !!!
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