Australia’s cruise industry faced another setback when the government extended its ban on international cruise ships for another three months to September 17. But the lines are set to use a top medical expert to try and change Canberra’s mind.
Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed that the human biosecurity emergency period, which has been in place since March 17, 2020, would be extended from June 17 until September 17, 2021 – effectively closing the borders to foreign travellers and ship’s crews, as well as stopping Australians going abroad except under special circumstances.
The extension is based on “specialist medical and epidemiological advice provided by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) and the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer.”
The news was greeted with “great disappointment”, with Cruise Lines International Association Australasia Managing Director Joel Katz saying it had expected that the government would announce a pathway forward for sailings to resume first, so the industry would know what needed to be done to resume sailings.
He pointed out that Tourism Minister Dan Tehan had made statements which appeared to indicate an easing might be on the cards, and that there was understanding in government circles about the plight of cruise, and the businesses associated with it who were enduring terrible disruption. Instead, after almost a year of regular meetings with health and other officials, there was no direction from the federal government, leaving talks with the states and territories virtually stalled.
To add to the industry’s pain, NSW yesterday revealed it was planning to allow a fortnightly flight of foreign students into the state to rescue hard pressed universities.
The Cruise industry will now ask the government’s health advisers to meet with Dr Ian Norton, the founder and managing director of Respond Global and former head of WHO’s Emergency Medical Team Initiative in Geneva from 2014 to 2020, where he led responses to the Ebola, diphtheria and measles outbreaks in various countries.
Dr Norton is also an external expert advising several cruise lines on their health and safety protocols, include Coral Expeditions, Ponant, Aurora Expeditions, APT and MSC.
Dr Norton told Cruise Passenger: “I do think there are differing medical views here. There is a zero risk approach being taken, but we firmly believe the measures and extra controls put in place for cruising domestically by the industry are very robust, and bring risk to very acceptable measures even now, and this will further strengthen as the population continues to get vaccinated.
“The expedition cruising by Coral have shown us its possible and safe here in Australia, and we are proud to support MSC who have passed 60,000 passengers since last August. We are interested to ensure those providing medical advice to the Minister are fully across the industry’s commitments and health protocols and their ability to mitigate risk.”
APT will this week begin sailings in The Kimberley aboard the foreign-flagged Caledonian Sky after being forced to recruit 30 Australian hospitality workers in a market, as Mr Katz pointed out, where such staff were in desperately short supply.
Four other cruise lines with bookings for the region – Ponant, Scenic, Silversea and Aurora – have not been given permission to sail, and have had to refund passengers at enormous cost to local tourism operators.
The news that the ban would continue was greeted with dismay by Cruise Passenger’s Facebook audience, with over 30 comments in favour of a cruise resumption.
Anne Harris said: “The Cruising Industry needs to restart the government doesn’t understand all the precautions the companies have in place onboard the ships now since COVID 19. You can go to the footy and cinema and restaurants, but not go on a Cruise.”
Over 44,000 Australians have sent MPs messages calling on the government to release a plan to restart cruise as part of a CLIA Ready.Set.Sail campaign.
Mr Katz called on the Federal Government to take real steps towards establishing a plan for future cruise operations, saying the government’s lack of a plan for the future was causing lasting damage to the economy and putting 18,000 Australian jobs in doubt.
“After months of discussions with government, the suspension has been extended again without any clear route from government towards a careful and responsible resumption of cruising,” Mr Katz said.
“The cruise industry has done an enormous amount of work to implement extensive new health protocols globally, but Australia is now the only major cruise destination in the world where there is no progress towards their adoption.”
Mr Hunt said in a statement: “The AHPPC has advised that the international COVID-19 situation continues to pose an unacceptable risk to public health. The extension of the emergency period is an appropriate response to that risk.”
What this means
- mandatory pre-departure testing and mask wearing for international flights
- restrictions on the entry of cruise vessels within Australian territory
- restrictions on outbound international travel for Australians
The minister maintained the Government will continue to consult with the States, Territories and the maritime industry “on options for the staged resumption of cruising when the medical advice is that it is safe to do so.”
But the disappointment after so many months of talks was palpable.
“The cruise industry is not asking for special treatment or to simply reopen the doors to cruising. We’ve presented some of the most stringent COVID-19 measures to be found anywhere in tourism, developed with the support of medical experts and we governments to take the next steps forward,” Mr Katz said.
He said that extension of the cruise ban will cause further damage to the economy – up to $6 billion loss since March 2020 – and put 18,000 Australians jobs in doubt including travel agents, tour operators, farmers, food suppliers and transport providers.
“It is now time to break the cycle of inaction in Australia and finalise the pathway forward,” he stressed.
I certainly agree we need to resume cruising domestically and hopefully take in the pacific Islands if they are covid free . Obviously if international travellers want to board a cruise ship here they would still have to do there mandatory 2 weeks confinement to make sure they were covid free before they boarded the cruise ship. The fact that they did their quarantine prior would mean they could in turn stay within Australia and see a lot of our Country by land as well.My wife and I are avid cruisers and we are missing our cruise without a doubt.
Michael Vlaanderen.
With all cruise workers vaccinated and all cruise guests vaccinated where is the problem. Even if we can only cruise to New Zealand or other places in a bubble.
The money being lost in the fuel and food etc that the ships take on board and of course old people like myself who lived for my cruising holidays, with limited years left, I feel more could be done to get this moving again.
If ships only cruise Australia then all money stays in Australia, give us oldies something to live for.
How true, we can go to the cinema,restaurants,football,cricket etc but not cruising.
Let’s get some positive action so we can return to cruising safely.
This has gone on too long & is affecting too many jobs as well as disappointed travelers. If we all have to vaccinated to travel so be it, let’s get moving!
What is the real reason the government is stalling?
An interesting report. Could we create a cruise bubble with New Zealand,? We are booked on Cunard Fremantle to NZ and back to Melbourne in November this year. Government need to make their travel ban notifications further out as people have to pay for their holiday in full 12 weeks before departure if booked through a travel agent and then have to wait for their refund.
We can holiday in Australia & New Zealand and fly but we can’t cruise?
We need to get cruising back now the government needs to look at this as we can do it in a save way
And even for those cruises that go ahead with an Australian crew they run the gauntlet of state borders. I should have been on APTs first cruise now, but being from Victoria couldn’t get to Broome.
This should start ASAP, delay will harm our local industries … tourism is basically dead. Grow up. Why talk of Zero risks? If u got sept 17 as start date pls let the cruise liners be at some peace. Don’t kill them we need them and be as efficient as before.
This start ASAP, delay will harm our local industries … tourism is basically dead. Why talk of Zero risks? If got sept 17 as start pls let the cruise liners be at some peace.
100000 can sit cough sneeze over one an other at a packed football match. Hug kiss shake hands etc With no thought of hygiene. Yet a cruise ship with restrictions galore and major attention to social distant masks etc is band. What a bloody joke. But I guess The AFL the ARL etc are running the show
Here is the real test.
If an insurer will not cover a risk, it is because they cannot measure / estimate / calculate the risk and its costs.
We are now seeing some insurance policies coming out which look like they do cover covid. But the devil is in the fine print. eg max claims of 4000 euros – how does that cover a med-evacuation? eg covers covid sars2 but not its mutations nor variants. eg only medical costs whilst on board.
It’s simple. There is not enough known, so insurers won’t and/or can’t responsibly cover the risks.
If they can’t assess the risk and cover it, how am I supposed to make an informed decision?
All the arguments about how safe a cruise will be haven’t yet convinced insurers to provide FULL and PROPER cover. Why should I be convinced?
Australia has
1. the highest employment numbers ever.
2. the lowest unemployment rate for decades.
3. a shortage of labor in some industries.
4. returned to positive GDP growth.
All this suggests that Australia is doing quite nicely, thank you, without the so-called $6 billion lost because of the cruise ban. In fact, it looks like we are far better off without them! (Ok. It is false to assume that when two things that happen at the same time, then one caused the other. But what the heck! Also is that $6 billion lost to Australia or $6 billion lost by cruise companies, of which a small part comes back to Australia?)
It’s funny that the cruise industry has always done whatever it can do to avoid labour laws and taxation in just about any place they operate. no morals there. So much so, they did not qualify for any USA financial support. Now they want those same governments they so carefully avoided to come to their rescue, using moral arguments? Really?
I’ve done 13 cruises with 4 different cruise companies. Would love to do more ASAP. But I hate self-serving half truths which don’t match my outlook on health or morals. For example what on earth does a negative covid test prove? It is only a ‘point in time’ test. Easy to become positive between a test and boarding a ship or whilst on a cruise. ie pre cruise testing on its own is totally insufficient as a claim of quality protection. Sure it eliminates any positives – at that point in time – but still leaves the gate wide open.
If a cruise company and a state health authority cannot stop repeats of noro virus (as in five consecutive cruises out of the one and same port on the one and same ship), to the extent that solicitors are looking at class actions, then what are we to think?
Why can’t Australian cruises begin. If you can travel interstate why can’t you cruise interstate. Mandatory vaccine certificate required before cruising.
What we need from our government is leader ship and what has now happened is the government taking the easy way out. instead what we see is the government hiding behind supposed health advice that indicates that the Australian public are not capable of making informed decisions. Again it shows just how little these government agencies know about cruising. Prior to covid we had a virus called “the flu” and many people contracted this virus and many passed away did we close borders and cancel overseas travel no we did not!! The fact of the matter is cruise ship do in fact have many situations where passengers become sick and have handled these quite effectively for many years. It is a pity that so-called experts will not get out their comfortable chairs and have a look at the economic impact their decisions are having especially the port cities that cruise ship visit.
Wake up Australia there is an election coming soon and the cruising family number in the thousands.
All Australian Governments are using medical advice as an excuse to stop tourism especially cruising. Power has gone to there heads.
Yes the need for protocols including vaccinated crew and passengers. Any one not vaccinated should be excluded at least for the next 2 years. Short 7 to 10 day cruises with half capacity .
Unfortunately I cannot see any progress until next year by which time cruise lines may simple abandon Australia. The Federal Government are focused on winning the next elections not solving issues for tourism or bringing Australians home. Mind people deliberately doing the wrong thing plays right into Government hands.
This shows no empathy with the industry. Most cruisers are “baby boomers” and would have had their vaccinations, I am due my second in July and am due to cruise in November, which now looks doubtful. I feel that there may be more to these bans than is public knowledge, it feels like the government is forcing people to holiday in Australia, which is a backward way of aiding the tourism sector as more than local dollars are needed to get them back on their feet.
After a horrible river cruise in Portugal in December 2019 we rebooked immediately for an ocean cruise with viking (same firm) and every cruise we have booked (3) and paid for has been cancelled due to the crisis. Will we see firms pushed to the wall and have thousands of people fighting to get their money back because of the governments lack of action?
SCOMO’s “there is no rush” strategy has backfired and the roll out of vaccine is a mess because of it.
Its just too risky we need to seal our borders even further and ban travel in and out of Australia (including to Australia Citizens) just look to the UK or the USA literally thousands dying in the street each day.
I support the ban until at least mid 2022 or even beyond – we need to wait until there no covid-19 cases globally.