Hello, it's Monday the 16th of August and thanks for joining me for the latest on travel and destinations from the Green List and the travel desk of the Independent.

As you might hear, I'm on the road in Shetland in the far north of Scotland, but it's a very good time to talk to you about what is happening. For example,

in Australia in terms of COVID and travel. Dodgy testing companies are giving misleading

advice on testing to leave the UK and the Scottish travel experience right now is not what you might have found

in other parts of the UK. Of course, this podcast is completely free, as is my weekly travel email.

You can sign up at independent.com.com.uk forward slash newsletters.

Well, let's have a look at what is happening in Australia.

According to the excellent data analyst, Tim White,

we have seen the highest new case total, over 500 over the past 24 hours, highest since the 5th of August 2020. And there's also

been nine deaths. That's the highest total for 11 months. Almost all of the new cases are in New

South Wales and there's worrying stories on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald about COVID actually reaching a cancer ward in Sydney and according to Tim White, there's a new lockdown in Darwin and the lockdown in Melbourne is already extended. So how do they get out of this?

Well, it's very difficult, not least, because they can't actually agree on a common policy

for COVID for the whole country. As you know, of course, Australia is divided into a number of states.

And West Australia, Western Australia, which is the biggest and most separate state,

is basically saying we are going to have a zero COVID plan.

Now, the country as a whole is moving towards a kind of managed COVID plan,

i.e., we've got to live with it.

We'll get everybody vaccinated.

And once we have done that, we will be in a good position to be able to manage this

and be able to open international borders.

But there's a massive row taking place between the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison,

and the Premier, effectively the Prime Minister of Western Australia, Mark McGowan.

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