Interview with Weekend Sunrise

Monique Wright: We're joined now by Tourism Minister Dan Tehan. Morning to you, Minister, thanks so much for being with us. Well, there are already many different international flights set to land in Sydney tomorrow. Do we know the types of people who are on board? Is this mostly Australians returning home?

Dan Tehan: Yes, mostly Australians returning home, and they'll be obviously thrilled to touch down and there'll be many Australians who will be taking off. And this is wonderful news as we begin to safely open up, and as of Monday, also, we're welcoming back New Zealanders. Our Kiwi friends can come into Victoria, New South Wales without quarantining and won't be long before we welcome Singaporeans as well. So this is us as a nation beginning to open up again. Wonderful news for the 660,000 people employed in our tourism industry.

Matt Doran: It is wonderful news indeed. Now, what's the timetable for the next group of arrivals? We're talking foreign workers and students.

Dan Tehan: Yeah, look, my hope is we'll see them returning before Christmas. Obviously, we want to make sure that we get all those returning Australians comfortably back home. We want to make sure that with New Zealand and Singapore, we're opening up successfully. And then we want to bring that workforce in that we need, those working holiday visa makers, our agricultural workforce. And then hopefully before Christmas, we might even see some international tourists coming, so exciting times. We've all got to do this safely, but we're on our way. And we saw that from that event at Bondi this morning. Australians are back out doing the things that they love and travel is what they love as well. And this means we can start travelling again and I'm sure there's many Australian’s who cannot wait.

Monique Wright: Yes, it is almost hard to imagine. Dan Tehan, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

Dan Tehan: Pleasure.