Morning Post: New Zealand fully opens its borders to tourists and students – ABC News

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Today’s news feed:

• New Zealand fully opens its borders to tourists and students
• Australian house prices fall at fastest pace since 2008 financial crisis
• ‘Most expensive McDonald’s meal’: Indonesian tourists fined A$2,664 for undeclared meat products
• Pelosi’s arrival in Singapore official news still does not mention Taiwan
• Top Wagyu beef in the world of perfectly marbled lamb

Let’s take a look at the latest epidemic figures:

• NSW: 9471 new local cases, 7 deaths, 2323 hospitalizations, 69 ICU cases
• Victoria: 7678 new local cases, 3 deaths, 773 hospitalizations, 50 ICU cases

New Zealand fully opens its borders to tourists and students

new ZealandFrom July 31, the entry of international tourists will be fully opened。

New Zealand’s borders were closed at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, and reopened in February this year, first to returning New Zealanders, and restrictions were gradually eased.

After the full opening of the borders from yesterday, those who need a visaTourists and international students on student visas are allowed to enter, and cruise ships can call at New Zealand ports。

International education is also an important industry in New Zealandindustry insiders hope that opening the border will help the recovery of the international education industry.

Over the past two years, New Zealand has imposed some of the toughest border controls in the world, troubling hundreds of thousands of New Zealand citizens living in Australia.

As of mid-2018, an estimated 568,000 New Zealand-born people lived in Australia, the fourth largest immigrant community.

Economically, tourism is New Zealand’s largest export industry, with nearly one in 10 New Zealanders directly employed in tourism.

Australia is an important tourism market for New Zealand. In 2019 before the epidemic, there were 1.5 million tourists from Australia, accounting for 40% of New Zealand’s international tourists that year.spending reached about NZ$2.7 billion (A$2.5 billion).

New Zealand opened to Australians in March and then to tourists from the US, UK and more than 50 other countries in May.

Australian house prices fall at fastest pace since 2008 financial crisis

Property analyst firm CoreLogic says Australian house prices are risingFalling at the fastest pace since the 2008 global financial crisiswith market conditions “likely to deteriorate” as interest rates continue to rise.

The latest data show that,The median Australian property value has fallen 2 per cent since the start of May to $747,182(The figure includes detached villas and apartments).

“Even though the housing market has only been down for three months…the rate of decline is comparable to the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008 and the sharp decline of the early 1980s,” said Tim Lawless, head of research at CoreLogic. Tim Lawless) said.

But Lawless points out,From mid-2020 (the low point of the housing market during the Covid-19 pandemic) to April 2022 (the national peak in house prices), house prices rose by an average of 28.6%。

Regional areas saw even bigger gains, up 41.1% in two years. The reason is the influx of city dwellers looking for a more desirable lifestyle as remote work becomes the new normal.

Most expensive city in AustraliaSydney, where median house prices fell 2.2% in July (4.7% quarterly decline). Still, the price of a typical house in Sydney is still around $1.35 million, while a typical unit could cost around $806,000.

Melbourne and Hobart also saw sharp falls in house priceshouse prices in the two cities fell 1.5 per cent last month, while Canberra fell 1.1 per cent and Brisbane fell 0.8 per cent.

Only Darwin, Adelaide and Perth recorded increases in July (between 0.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent).

‘Most expensive McDonald’s meal’: Indonesian tourists fined A$2,664 for undeclared meat products

A passenger arriving from Bali, IndonesiaFined more than $2,000 for failing to declare two McDonald’s beef sausage breakfast burgers and a ham croissant。

Australia has imposed stricter biosecurity checks on travellers returning from Indonesia after foot-and-mouth disease was found in herds in Bali.

Last week, a passenger at Darwin Airport was fined $2664 after a biosecurity detection dog sniffed out fast-food meat products in a passenger’s backpack and the passenger failed to declare it.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said: “This willIt was the most expensive McDonald’s meal the passenger had ever eaten, and the fine was double the airfare to Bali。”

“I have no sympathy for those who do not comply with Australia’s strict biosecurity measures,” Mr Watt said.heTravelers urged not to take chancesbecause the strict measures will catch those who try to “muddle through”.

He says:”Biosecurity is no joke– It helps protect jobs, our farms, food and support the economy. “

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia has prompted Australian biosecurity officials to classify some meat products as “risk items”.

Mr Watt said,A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Australia could destroy Australian agriculture and cost the nation around $80 billion over a few years。

Background knowledge: Foot-and-mouth disease

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious virus that does not pose a threat to human health, but it can cause painful blisters in cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, and may result in the animals having to be massacred to eradicate the virus.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus can be transmitted from animal to animal through the animal’s breath, contact with blisters, and through infected milk, semen, feces, and urine.

The virus can also survive on car tires, clothing and shoes, which is why stricter biosecurity measures have been introduced for travelers returning from Indonesia.

Foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks have occurred in many countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America. But Australia has been spared for the past 150 years.

ACCC recommends government intervention in the market to ensure domestic gas supply

The latest report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) states that due toGas shortages could lead to higher prices, federal government should consider intervening in energy markets。

The ACCC has released its interim report on the East Coast Gas Supply Survey. The report states,Although Australia has “relatively abundant gas resources”, most of which is produced for export, the domestic market will need large quantities of gas next year to avoid shortages。

“The very worrisome outlook for 2023 could put further upward pressure on prices, which could result in some commercial and industrial users being unable to continue operations,” the report said.

“This is a significant deterioration relative to our forecast for 2022 at the same time last year and poses a real risk to Australia’s energy security.”

The report recommends that the government consider intervening in the market by activating the so-called “gas trigger” (an emergency provision that allows the Minister of Resources to directly intervene in the gas market and impose export controls to ensure sufficient supply in Australia) adequate supply.

The ACCC predicts that there will be 56 PJ (PJ is the abbreviation for Petajoule, 10 to the 15th power of joules, called beat joules) of natural gas supply next year.The shortfall, equivalent to around 10% of domestic demand, is the largest projected supply gap since 2017。

Shortages are expected to beMainly affects New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, with less impact on Queensland。

To avoid gas shortages, the ACCC has encouraged LNG exporters to act now to increase domestic supply and advised the government to work with exporters to ensure they supply more gas to the domestic market.

Pelosi’s arrival in Singapore official news still does not mention Taiwan

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region yesterday (July 31).

According to information released on the official website of the Speaker’s Office, Pelosi and his party “Includes visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan”. The trip will focus on shared security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region.

Official sources do not mention Taiwan。

Chinese state media closely monitored the flight path of what is believed to be Pelosi’s special plane via Flightradar24, a flight information platform.

The Chinese Air Force released a message over the weekend, sayingSend multi-type fighter jets to fly around Taiwan“Exercise and enhance the ability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”