Chinese New Year 2023

Read the transcript for Minister Butler's press conference in Adelaide on the COVID wave underway in China.

We'll put in place a set of arrangements that frankly gave the most convenience to people who want to come to Australia, travel to Australia from China, but as I said, are verifiable and robust. BUTLER: The World Health Organisation ultimately is the best arbiter of that and they have pointed, as I've said over the last day or two, to the lack of comprehensive information about the situation in China, given the size of the population there and the size, evidently, of the COVID wave that is underway there. I think we'll have much better information at hand as state governments in the Commonwealth to start to put in place and comprehensive measures to what is going to be a very significant burden on our community, certainly a burden on those individuals from impacted by it, but also a burden on our health system. But out of an abundance of caution, a range of countries have taken the view that we need to put in place some arrangements while we get a more comprehensive information about the situation in China. But the World Health Organisation has pointed to the lack of comprehensive information about the situation in China - a fast evolving situation. There are a range of other measures that we're going to put in place here in Australia, that will have no impact on those travellers directly: measures to improve the surveillance or the gathering of information here in Australia. Now, there's no evidence of that right now, this is a measure taken out of an abundance of caution to provide Australians and the Australian government with the best possible information about a fast evolving situation. BUTLER: Well, I want to be clear that this is a measure that's been put in place by a range of countries across Asia, North America, and Europe, and a measure or a series of measures described by the World Health Organisation in the past 24 hours, as understandable. And as other countries who've put in place these arrangements have done, I also want to stress that this is a temporary measure, reflecting the lack of comprehensive information right now, about the situation in China. That lack of comprehensive information has led a number of countries in recent days to put in place various measures - not to restrict travel from China, it's important to say - but to gather better information about what is happening epidemiologically in that country. There is a broad consensus among all of the jurisdictional Chief Health Officers and Chief Medical Officers, that the resumption of travel between China and Australia poses no immediate public health threat to Australians. I want to stress that the Government welcomes the resumption of travel between Australia and China.