"Reopening in an effectively managed manner can restore damaged tourism and study abroad industries on the one hand, and fill labour market shortages on the other, while ensuring that health systems can cope with the increase in cases."
Australia lifts restrictions on international borders. Photo/Visual China
Wen | Reporter Wang Xiaofeng of Caijing
Editor| Haozhou
Recently, New Zealand and Australia have successively announced plans to open their borders, and both countries have previously been known for their strictest epidemic prevention policies, known as "fortresses". Behind the policy changes made by the two countries today is both the barrier to epidemic prevention brought about by high vaccination rates and the response to the economic and social pressures brought about by the epidemic. As the World Health Organization noted when it recommended that countries lift travel restrictions, they do not provide added value, but rather exacerbate the economic and social pressures on people.
Australian Prime Minister Morrison recently announced that the international border will be fully opened on February 21, which means that in addition to international students and some temporary visa holders, all international travelers with valid visas are expected to enter Australia normally when they arrive in Australia.
"The condition is that you have to get two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to come to Australia. That's the rule, and hopefully everyone will follow it... It has been customary for state-based maximums of entry and state-based quarantine arrangements to continue, which will be adjusted by state governments to suit the circumstances they deem appropriate. Morrison said.
Morrison also stressed that the previous high-profile expulsion of unvaccinated tennis star Djokovic is sending a very clear message to the outside world that the rules for entering Australia must be followed.
Changes in public opinion
As in the rest of the world, the Omikejung variant has caused widespread infection in Australia. Medical experts in the country say the variant, while more easily transmitted, is less toxic than previous strains. With more than 90 per cent of Australians over the age of 16 fully vaccinated, the rate of increase in new infections and the number of people requiring hospitalization appears to be decreasing. The country reported slightly more than 23,000 new infections on Feb. 7, the lowest level since entering 2022 and well below the peak of 150,000 cases per day about a month ago.
On 30 November 2021, due to the discovery of the Omiljunn variant in many parts of Australia, the Australian Federal Government postponed the reopening of the border to 15 December in order to gather more information about the Omiljung strain and determine whether it is more threatening than the Delta strain, such as how effective the COVID-19 vaccine is against the new variant, whether it will produce milder symptoms and the level of transmission.
Polls conducted by australian media at the time showed that there was a general opposition to the uncertainty brought about by the opening of the border, with 58% of voters supporting a lower level than before the covid-19 pandemic, and only 7% of the population wanting to reopen the border at a high level of acceptance of immigrants.
In response to public doubts, the Australian government decided to reopen the border on December 15 after some evaluation, and Morrison explained that 90% of the country's people aged 16 and over have completed two doses of vaccination, so there is no need to fear the new crown virus, plus The Amy Kerong is not as serious as originally thought, so it is going according to the original plan.
On December 15, Australia finally allowed some temporary visa holders to enter as scheduled, including skilled workers, international students, humanitarian visa and working holiday visa holders, as well as temporary family visa holders. Prior to this, the Australian government had tested the waters to open its borders to certain countries and people, first introducing a "travel bubble" for New Zealand, and then allowing Japanese and South Korean tourists and some visa holders to return to Australia.
The success of testing the waters to open the border has reduced public pressure on the Morrison government, and at the beginning of 2021, 70% of Australians had thought that they would have to wait until the COVID-19 pandemic was completely over before restarting their borders, and now public opinion has provided the basis for full opening-up, and even Western Australia, which still adheres to the lockdown policy, has reached two-thirds of the public opinion in support of opening up.
People's satisfaction with the Morrison government's response to the outbreak is also rising, with the Guardian's survey of 1,069 respondents showing that 40% of respondents (compared to 35% two weeks ago) thought the Morrison government had managed the outbreak well, and 34% (compared with 38% two weeks ago) thought it was poor.
Like Australia, New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern announced a five-step plan to reopen the country's borders in early February after some twists and turns. Because New Zealand's epidemic prevention has entered a new stage, in addition to considering the epidemic, it is also necessary to consider factors such as economy and people's livelihood.
New Zealand will restart cautiously from February 28, with a five-step plan to fully open its borders in October this year. The first step, starting from February 27, New Zealanders who have been vaccinated with two doses of the new crown vaccine in Australia can return to New Zealand but need to self-isolate; the second step, from mid-March, the border will be open to eligible people from other countries, and the holiday work program will also be restarted, and the opening policy will be mainly for workers in the necessary industries; the third step, from April 12, the border will be open to a large number of international students and eligible temporary visa holders; the fourth step, The border will be open to Australian residents and a wider range of work visa holders by July, and the fifth step, starting in October, will resume normal visa applications for all visitors and international students and allow them to enter the country with visas.
Under this phased opening policy, people from about 60 visa-free countries will be able to enter New Zealand from July, and the border will be fully reopened in October, when the adoption will allow visitors from any country to enter. However, at least initially, entrants are subjected to a series of COVID-19 tests and are required to quarantine for ten days.
"Reopening in this way of effective management, on the one hand, allows tourists to enter the country, allowing people to reunite and fill the labor shortage, while also ensuring that the health care system can cope with the increase in cases." Ardern said New Zealand was moving towards the goal of living after the COVID-19 pandemic, but had not yet reached that goal.
"The Lottery of Human Suffering"
The reopening of the borders between New Zealand and Australia has not only changed public opinion, but also responded to the problems caused by the lockdown. In March 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic around the world, the Australian government closed entry to all visa holders except their own citizens and permanent residents. This unprecedented initiative follows a ban on travellers from China, Iran, Italy and South Korea in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Australia.
The biggest controversy is that after the Delta mutation caused a new wave of outbreaks in India, the Australian government announced that from May 3, 2021, people who have been in India for a temporary ban will be temporarily banned from entering India within 14 days, and violators will be fined or even five years in prison. In response, Ian Lloyd Neubauer, an Australian journalist living abroad, quoted the country's poet Clive James as ridiculing the Morris government's epidemic prevention policy : "Many Australians are descendants of prisoners, but the problem is that many are indeed descendants of jailers". He was pessimistic at the time that Australia's lockdown policy would last four or five years.
Like Australia, New Zealand has had one of the most tightly controlled borders over the past two years, with foreigners barred from entering New Zealand and New Zealand citizens who want to return home must make an urgent request to the government or obtain an entry quarantine place through the website at the National Quarantine Facility (MIQ). The inability of Overseas New Zealanders to return home has sparked concern, with a pregnant female journalist stranded in Afghanistan because of strict border controls and her request to return was rejected. Under the public opinion, she has now been approved to enter MIQ and plans to return in March.
Like the female journalist trapped in Afghanistan, the huge demand for hotel quarantines has shut many New Zealanders out, with critics calling the system unfair. Christopher Luxon, the leader of the opposition National Party, has bluntly called MIQ a "lottery of human misery."
Despite the controversy, this policy has helped New Zealand keep infection and mortality rates low. New Zealand, a country of 5 million people, has so far had around 17,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and only 53 deaths.
The good epidemic prevention effect has also made the New Zealand people disagree on whether to open the country's borders. According to the results of the survey released by New Zealand's authoritative polling agency Newshub-Reid Research, a slim majority of respondents (57.8%) support the opening of the border, hoping to see the border closed for a longer period of time to maintain control of the epidemic in Omicron, while 36.7% of respondents do not support this view.
The economy can't wait
This back-and-forth public view also makes it imperative for the New Zealand government to balance the interests of multiple parties in considering the reopening of the border, including the impact of the lockdown on the economy and pillar industries, such as tourism.
Prior to the pandemic, New Zealand's tourism industry contributed significantly to the country's economy, with a direct annual contribution of US$16.4 billion, or 5.5%, to New Zealand's GDP, and indirect contributions to US$11.3 billion, representing 3.8% of New Zealand's total GDP. Tourism brings 225384 direct employment and indirect employment to 158802, accounting for 13.6% of total employment in New Zealand. Tourists spend a total of $41.9 billion a year in New Zealand, averaging $115 million per day.
However, since the outbreak of the epidemic, New Zealand's tourism industry has fallen off a cliff. According to the country's Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA), traveler spending fell by $15 billion and lost 72,000 jobs in the year ending March 2021.
Tourism practitioners attribute this mainly to the fact that the New Zealand government's epidemic prevention policy has excluded international tourists, criticizing the government for not opening the border as soon as possible, although the government has announced a five-step policy to gradually open the border, which includes the need for self-isolation, and they have also criticized it, believing that this is still not conducive to attracting tourists to New Zealand.
The country's tourism industry slammed the self-segregation clause, which, in their view, prevented a substantial recovery in the country's foreign exchange earnings, as tourism is New Zealand's largest export industry, accounting for 20.1% of total exports, meaning it is the country's largest source of foreign exchange earnings.
Kevin Ward, chief executive of the Airports Association of New Zealand, said: "If people had to quarantine at hotels for the first week they went to New Zealand, they wouldn't want to go to New Zealand."
The association's data shows that if self-isolation requirements continue to be implemented, the demand for visitors from Australia, New Zealand's largest neighbour, is only 7% of the 2019 level. A spokesperson for Australian travel company Flight Center said that while a phased restart was to be implemented, the quarantine requirement would be a huge obstacle for the vast majority of potential visitors.
"The quarantine rule is a complete hand brake that will isolate New Zealand from the world rather than reconnect." Lynda Keene, chief executive of the New Zealand Tourism Export Council, believes the government needs to re-evaluate the quarantine policy because it would be a more meaningful reopen if tourists could enter with less quarantine intervention.
Even more distressing to New Zealand tourism practitioners is the unexpected policy leap forward by neighboring Australia, which caught New Zealand's tourism industry off guard by announcing the full opening of its borders in February. "Travel practitioners are frustrated because they know that New Zealand's market share is likely to be taken away by Australia. This is another obstacle to our recovery of international tourism. Keane noted that about 40 per cent of tourists travelling to Australia and New Zealand plan to travel to both destinations, but now that Australian tourism is ready to welcome visitors, New Zealand has yet to be determined.
Not only the tourism industry, but also New Zealand's industry that relies on foreign labor cannot support it, and they are also the main force calling for the reopening of the border, for example, New Zealand's fruit growing industry. New Zealand has a visa program called Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) that is designed to facilitate industries that require seasonal cheap labor.
This project has been greatly affected by the epidemic policy, resulting in a shortage of labor in the New Zealand fruit industry to complete sowing, harvesting and other operations. Terry Meikle, chief executive of the New Zealand Apple and Pear Industry Association, said: "While we applaud the reopening of the RSE visa, this [five-step policy] was announced too little and too late for the harvest that we will begin in a few weeks' time."
"We expect the harvest to be good, of good quality and quantity. But everyone thinks, can we pick these fruits?" Mikel hopes the New Zealand government can do more to help improve the plight of the fruit industry due to the pandemic.
As with New Zealand's open borders, many industries in Australia have been affected by the pandemic. Darryl Newby, co-founder of Melbourne-based travel company Welcome to Travel, said the outbreak had affected not only Tourism in Australia, but every industry.
As the outbreak changes, the Sydney Morning Herald notes that the "negative sentiment" that is beginning to appear in market research may be pushing the Australian government to make changes. The article quoted Tourism Australia general manager Phillip Harrison as saying that Australia's epidemic prevention policy has changed from "envied" to "ridiculed", and some people are worried that Australia's tourism attractiveness will be permanently damaged.
Tourism generated more than $60 billion in revenue for the Australian economy before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the easing of border restrictions to a handful of countries last November brought 300,000 people to Australia. Nearly two years after Australia closed its international borders, reopening the borders will bring life to the battered industry.
The full opening of the border has indeed been an uplifting for the Australian tourism industry, which Airport Australia chief executive James Goodwin said was exciting news that the aviation community had been waiting for for a long time. International travel in Australia is currently only the top 15% of COVID-19, a positive step towards helping the recovery of aviation and tourism. Domestic routes will also get an important boost from the return of international travellers, as international visitors will not be going to just one Australian city.
Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce also welcomed the reopening of the border. In his view, reopening its borders to international tourists means that Australia is finally reopening to business. Qantas will resume more international routes and increase capacity as soon as possible.
Reopening the border will also lead to a rebound in the Australian study abroad industry, with the number of international students studying in Australia plummeting in the past two years. The Mitchell Institute of Victoria University recently released a study, Student, interrupted: International Education and the Pandemic, which surveyed five major study abroad destinations for international students: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The report shows that while the first wave of the pandemic has caused a sharp drop in international freshmen, countries that are open to international students have seen a strong rebound, with the number of students studying in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States still reaching new highs. Australia and New Zealand, by contrast, continue to experience a sharp decline in the number of international freshmen. The report therefore argues that the rapid recovery of international student numbers in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States indicates that travel restrictions have led to a suppression of international student arrivals, so when travel to Australia and New Zealand becomes more convenient, international new students should be enrolled in large numbers.
Although New Zealand and Australia have announced the date of full border opening for economic and social reasons, there are still many uncertainties to be dealt with, the effectiveness of this policy to test the waters will take time to test, and the people of both countries have mostly maintained this mentality. A New Zealand Newshub-Reid Research poll shows this tentative mentality, with 47.9 per cent of respondents saying they would support the resumption of the lockdown if the outbreak changes, although Prime Minister Ardern has ruled out such a possibility. 45.8% of respondents do not support the new lockdown, which ended in December last year, when Auckland spent 107 days in harsh conditions.