Comments From PM Suggest International Touring Could Be Further Away Than We Hoped

The prospect of international bands heading back to Australia next year is seeming more unlikely following comments from Scott Morrison across the weekend.

As The Guardian reports, the Prime Minister said that Australia would acting “very cautiously” when it came to reopening the border and that it would only open quarantine-free travel to a “handful” of countries.

Comments also made across the weekend from Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham to The Sydney Morning Herald suggest that the countries Morrison was referring to would by low-risk, which would rule out the US and UK, given their latest COVID figures.

“The prospects of opening up widespread travel with higher risk countries will remain very reliant on effective vaccination or other major breakthroughs in the management of COVID,” Birmingham.

The comments across the weekend follow that of music legend Michael Chugg earlier this month, who told The Music he believed it was unlikely we’d see any bands from overseas performing in Australia next year.

“I don’t think we’ll have any international [artists] coming in until 2022,” Chugg, who was named in the 2019 Power 50’s most influential figures in Australian music, said.

“It might open up in late ’21, but I don’t think it’ll be any earlier. I mean, if you look at America and the UK, which is where 90% of the international acts come from, there’s no way you could be opening the borders to them at this stage and it’s not going to go away quickly.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to do some things later next year, but I can’t see the Government allowing the borders to open up. Hopefully, we’ll get a bubble with New Zealand, and Australian and New Zealand bands can start playing.”