Australia news live update: Melbourne celebrates end of lockdown, Scott Morrison to discuss international border reopening

Joyce says there are discussions with the Indonesian government to open up Bali to vaccinated Australian travellers, with the hope that it could be open before Christmas.

Qantas will also be launching commercial flights to Delhi, for the first time in ten years. This is off the back of Qantas operating repatriation flights during the pandemic on behalf of the Australian government.

Qantas is also trying to bring forward some of its 787 fleet, and once domestic borders are open, the company will be able to bring back its staff to 100% of pre-Covid levels by January, and 120% by April.

All 5,000 staff who have been stood down during the pandemic will be able to return to work by early-December, Joyce says.

Prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking from Hanger 96 in Sydney with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and NSW premier Dominic Perrottet.

Joyce says the last 20 months has been “the darkest period” in Qantas’ history, “but there is light at the end of the tunnel”, thanks to Australians getting vaccinated.

In 10 days time, he says, a 787 will go from Sydney to Darwin to London, and that the first time Qantas has run regular long haul flights since March 2020, he says.

A few days after that, Sydney to LA flights will resume.

He says there has been a “phenomenal reaction” to the NSW news that quarantine will not be required for returning Australians from 1 November. He says they’ve put on 20 flights to London, and many of those flights have sold out.

There’s also massive demand for domestic travel, he says.

In response, the A380 will arrive in Australia on the 25th of December.

“A great Christmas present for our people.”

He says a second one will arrive so that they can do Sydney to LA from April.

Flights to Singapore will come online at the end of November, Fiji from early December, and South Africa in early January, and Bangkok in the middle of January.

My colleague Caitlin Cassidy has had a look at how Melburnians are feeling about the end of lockdown.

We are expecting a press conference with Scott Morrison any moment. He’s visiting a Qantas hangar with airline CEO Alan Joyce so we expect the press conference to be about the return of international travel.

The regional Victorian town of Mildura is also exiting its lockdown today, a day earlier than planned.

People in Melbourne still cannot travel into regional Victoria, or vice versa, until the state reaches 80% double dose, estimated to be 30 October.

About 500,000 Victorians need to get their second dose before we reach that target.

At that point, masks will no longer be required outdoors, retail and gyms reopen and up to 150 fully vaccinated patrons can be inside venues.

AAP reports that it’s expected Victoria will scrap quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated Australians arriving from overseas, bringing the state into line with NSW.

According to several media reports, cabinet ministers met on Thursday night to sign off the plan, which could come into effect as early as 1 November.

Good morning, and welcome to today’s live blog. I’m Josh Taylor and I will be taking you through the news coverage this morning.

I’m coming to you from Melbourne, where we have exited our sixth lockdown after 77 days – 262 lockdown days in total this pandemic. Melbourne has endured the longest lockdown in the world.

The six reasons to leave home are no longer in place and the curfew is finally gone. And as we witnessed in scenes across the city at the clock struck 12 last night, people can now return to bars and restaurants and get haircuts in limited capacities.

You can now have up to 10 visitors a day in your home.

But it is worth remembering it will still be a little while before many more restrictions are eased, with indoor retail, indoor entertainment venues and gyms among those remaining closed until we reach 80% of the 16+ population double dose vaccinated, expected towards the end of next week.

We will bring you all the latest coming out of Melbourne in the next few hours, plus we are also keeping an eye on that Covid-19 case on the Gold Coast announced yesterday, among other things.

Let’s get into it.