"Everyone is keen to get back to a time that we once knew," the conservative leader said in the face of growing calls for international borders to reopen.

"The reality is we're living this year in a pandemic that's worse than last year."

Last March, Australia took the unprecedented step of closing its borders to foreign visitors and banning its globetrotting citizens from leaving.

That prompted the first population decline since World War I, stranded tens of thousands of Australian citizens overseas and separated hundreds of thousands of residents from family members.

But the country now has almost no community transmission and life for most is relatively normal.