The prime minister has dismissed NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s claim that NSW will be welcoming back international visitors from November 1. Morrison said that the decision to admit international visitors was entirely at the discretion of the Commonwealth and that no visas for international tourists, students or skilled workers would be granted by November 1. "The premier understands that is a decision for the Commonwealth government not for the state government and when we believe that is a decision to make, we will make it in that time,” Morrison said, adding “We’re not rushing this.”
When asked directly if international tourists would be touching down in Sydney on November 1, the prime minister said unequivocally “No”, directly contradicting Dominic Perrottet’s pledge just hours earlier. “We are not opening up to everyone coming back to Australia at the moment. I want to be clear about that. We will take this forward in a staged way as we have done in all these things. We are only extending this to Australian residents, citizens and their immediate families. It is not extending broader than that, we will have a much greater volume, it is constrained to the volume of Australian citizens and residents returning,” the PM said.
Morrison did, however, say that fully vaccinated Australian citizens, residents and their immediate families from any state or territory nationwide will be allowed to travel internationally without applying for an exemption from November 1. The quarantining provisions upon their return will depend on where the inbound passengers arrive. For example, in NSW from November 1, all vaccinated arrivals will be able to depart and arrive in NSW without having to quarantine at all.