The federal government is considering deporting some people who participated in a large party in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Christmas Day, with temporary visa holders warned about the potential consequences of flouting coronavirus restrictions.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke was "shocked" at what he saw at Bronte Beach when a crowd breached social distancing and other rules imposed due to a virus outbreak in Sydney's north.
Some are believed to be backpackers who remained in Australia during the coronavirus pandemic or expatriates mostly from the UK.
Mr Hawke said the government would be looking at the visa conditions of attendees who were temporary visa holders or guests of Australia.
"If people have breached public health orders and continue to breach public health orders, they will be subject to penalties, including the normal penalties that Australians face but also visa cancellation," Mr Hawke told SBS News.
"Under the Migration Act, the federal government has the power to cancel people's visas and return people, to impose no further stay conditions, to look at their work rights or other prospects that they have here.
"All of those options are on the table and we will look at those things if people are breaching public health orders."
The Department of Home Affairs will also work with NSW authorities in the lead up to New Year to make sure people do the right thing.
"The small minority of people who are doing the wrong thing need to understand they are guests in Australia, they are temporary visa holders, and if they breach their visa conditions, they're subject to visa cancellation," Mr Hawke said.
Meanwhile, Labor has warned the government not to go ahead with cuts to welfare benefits in January, saying it's too soon and the jobs market is still weak in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Morrison government will lower the JobSeeker unemployment supplement by $100 a fortnight on 1 January and the JobKeeper payment by $200 on 4 January.
The new rates will be $150 a fortnight for JobSeeker and $1000 for JobKeeper and are effective until the end of March.
"The government should reconsider it," Labor MP Bill Shorten told Nine's Today Show on Tuesday.
"We are not out of the woods yet with this pandemic and the economic effects, they reverberating around the economy, especially in regional towns and suburbs where there is a lot of casual workers.
"For the less well off, we shouldn't be cutting their circumstances at this point in time."
Mr Shorten noted there are more than one million people on the unemployment queue and that number is likely to increase.
NSW is still trying to suppress a COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney's Northern Beaches, which has now .
While all three new locally-acquired cases included in Tuesday's numbers were linked to the Avalon cluster, an additional three cases outside the Northern Beaches region were recorded after 8pm last night and are being investigated, including one in Wollongong.
It has prompted Premier Gladys Berejiklian to warn that the risk in Greater Sydney "is becoming almost equal" to that to that of the Northern Beaches.
A plan to give frontline coronavirus workers from around NSW prime seats to the famous New Year's Eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour has been cancelled.
Victoria on Tuesday recorded its 60th consecutive day without a locally-acquired COVID-19 case but uncovered two new cases in hotel quarantine.
Queensland, which has gone 104 days without any community transmission, recorded five new cases in hotel quarantine on Monday. There are currently 13 active cases in the state.
South Australia on Monday recorded one COVID-19 case in hotel quarantine, while Western Australia recorded three COVID-19 cases in hotel quarantine.
Australia's death toll from coronavirus is now 909, after a NSW man in his 70s who was infected with COVID-19 in March recently died of respiratory complications.
With reporting by Australian Associated Press.
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