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Govt not deliberately delaying resumption of travel – minister

Government
James Chapple
15 April 2021

Robert Courts, the aviation and maritime minister, has defended the government’s recently announced framework for the resumption of international travel, and batted away suggestions the policy and its roll-out have been deliberately convoluted to stop people from travelling.

Aviation minister Robert Courts said the travel chaos is the ‘responsibility of the aviation sector’

Courts appeared before the government’s travel committee on Wednesday (14 April) to field MPs questions on the findings of the Global Travel Taskforce, which on Friday (9 April) issued its report setting out a pathway to a resumption of international travel.


Chair of the committee, Huw Merriman MP, asked Courts whether the lack of clarity and detail in the taskforce’s report on several key issues, notably how countries will be categorised according to a new traffic light system, was a deliberate ploy to restrict traveller numbers.