Australia joins New Zealand with 14-day self-isolation for all overseas arrivals

Australia has joined new Zealand in boosting travel restrictions by requiring everyone entering the country to self-isolate for 14 days. The new requirement will be in place from midnight Sunday and international cruise ships are banned from docking in Australia for the next 30 days. The government has indicated there will be arrangements in place for cases where Australians are on cruise ships. Australia already has travel bans preventing people other than citizens and residents entering the country if they have been in mainland China, Iran, South Korea and Italy in the last 14 days. The new restrictions are likely to further damage Australian airlines already suffering from a downturn on demand by sparking a further wave of cancelations. Restrictions in the US and Europe have seen massive cuts in airline capacity significantly exceeding those already announced in Australia. It could also see further cuts in Australian services by international carriers.  American airlines announcing Sunday it was suspending its Sydney-Los Angeles service as part of wider cuts. Australian carriers were still assessing the impact of the change but the Qantas Group on Sunday evening announced it was offering customers worried about travel restriction greater flexibility to change their plans. READ: Qantas widens COVID-19 fare waiver to assist passengers. The restrictions come as Australia's death toll from the virus rose to four with the death of a 77-year-old Queensland woman and there have been more than 280 cases of the disease. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the travel restrictions were indefinite and would be reviewed every week. He said the Australian Border Force would move over the course of the weekend to make sure people declare when entering the country that they understand self-isolation is a requirement. "This is very important,'' he said. "What we've seen in ... the recent weeks is more countries having issues with the virus. "And that means that the source of some of those transmissions are coming from more and more countries." Morrison said bans had been effective to date and the new restrictions would ensure that Australians, who made up the majority of people entering Australia, would self-isolate for 14  days. He said penalties for failing to self-isolate would be up to the states and territories, noting the practice had been a  voluntary arrangement until now "with no potential sanction applied against someone who failed to do so". "Once state authorities are in a position to give that its legal enforcement then that will be a change,'' he said. "I mean, so if your mate has been to Bali and they come back and they turn up at work, and they're sitting next to you, well, they'll be committing an offense. "And so I think it's up to all of us to ensure that, we are ensuring this is put in place."