Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has got a majority consensus from states to reopen their borders by Christmas.
Seven out of eight states have agreed to formulate a plan to open borders by December.
The one holdout is Western Australia which said it will only do so when other states have contained the virus.
To get borders open again the federal government will come up with a formula to restrict travellers from designated virus ‘hotspots.’
Australia’s major hotspot is Melbourne which is in a six-week partial lockdown.
Victoria State has recorded nearly 20,000 positive cases.
Measures to limit access to hotspot areas while opening up to the rest of the country will be used to manage trans-Tasman travel to and from New Zealand.
The federal government has been miffed by state Premiers’ restrictions, and the tourism industry is getting increasingly desperate for action to help tourism businesses.
"Inconsistent and disproportionate approaches to border restrictions by some states and territories will continue to cause job losses in parts of our tourism industry," Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said.
Margy Osmond, CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum, said: "Our industry remains on its knees in the fight of its life and has been losing thousands of jobs each month."
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Pacific editor
