Vulnerable Australians stranded overseas will be given priority tickets on special Qantas flights as the nation boosts its quarantine capacity.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The federal government has clinched a deal with the Northern Territory to use a mining camp south of Darwin for returned travellers to isolate.
Up to 5000 people will be able to quarantine at the Howard Springs facility between now and March, with the arrangements potentially extended beyond then.
More than 29,000 Australians overseas want to come home and almost 3000 are considered to be vulnerable.
That cohort will get first access to tickets on Qantas repatriation flights from the UK, India and South Africa.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Howard Springs would work alongside the 5500 hotel quarantine places available weekly.
"We're getting more and more and more Australians home," he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who has been calling for more federal action to bring people home for months, accused the government of taking too long.
He said there had never been more planes free or hotels empty.
"It's not rocket science to try and put those two things together," Mr Albanese said.
The prime minister's RAAF jet broke down on Thursday keeping him in Cairns overnight while a replacement flew up to retrieve him.
Friday morning's national cabinet of state and territory leaders was postponed accordingly.
Mr Morrison argued there was no appropriate secure teleconferencing connection available in Cairns, which has a naval base.
"We can't help mechanical failings of planes. They happen from time to time," he said.
"When they happen we reschedule arrangements. Simple as that."
National cabinet will instead meet next Friday, the first time federal, state and territory leaders have linked up for more than a month.
Victoria's coronavirus case numbers plummeted on Friday with just two new infections recorded.
Mr Morrison said it was time for Premier Daniel Andrews to significantly ease restrictions after months of harsh lockdown.
"At some time you've got to step off the shore and start moving forward again," he said.
Melburnians weary after months of prolonged harsh lockdowns are set to learn which restrictions will ease on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the first flight from New Zealand under a one-way travel passage landed in Sydney on Friday carrying 230 people.
The prime minister said preliminary work was under way on travel arrangements for students and corporate travellers from other countries.
Australian Associated Press
