‘Interesting’ the federal government won’t mandate travel insurance for visitors

Sky News business editor Ross Greenwood says it is “interesting” the federal government is not mandating travel insurance for visitors to Australia when the international borders open.

“We started to have a little bit of a look at the whole issue of what happens when borders open,” Mr Greenwood told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

This involves both “the travel insurance issues for when Australians are leaving Australia,” and “what happens when others from overseas are allowed into our country”.

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs announced on Friday that all visitors to Australia are “strongly recommended” to make arrangements for private health insurance.

Mr Greenwood said the “interesting part” about the announcement was the government not mandating travel insurance for visitors to the country.

“It still is an important point, that we do not want, in Australia, our hospital system to be overrun by people coming in from overseas and effectively taking hospital beds.

“The opposite is true when Australians go overseas and travel as well.”