Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In positive news for small businesses, families and some critical industries that have been suffering from worker shortages, the government announced that from 1 December large numbers of visas holders will now be able to enter Australia. Our borders are in the process of reopening. From 1 December, if you are double vaccinated with a recognised vaccine you'll be able to enter Australia without an exemption if you are a skilled migrant, international student, working holiday maker, provisional family visa holder, or a tourist or business traveller from Japan, Korea or Singapore.

This will address what has been looming as one of our biggest economic challenges, which is an existing workforce shortage. Although this is a challenge for the economy, in the context of things this is a good problem to have. We're in this position now, because we've got very high vaccination rates: over 85 per cent of the over-16 population are double vaccinated and well on track to probably exceed a figure of 90 per cent, which will be one of the highest in the OECD. We've shown that we've got a strong and robust public health system which has been able to manage outbreaks and treat the disease effectively. And we've got an economy that is larger coming out of the pandemic than it was going into the pandemic. We expect around 200,000 new arrivals to come in between December and January. For people in the tourist industry, in the restaurant industry, in the hospitality business, on farms and in agriculture and in any number of businesses, this is welcome news indeed.