From next year, Australian passport holders will be able to use airport e-gates at British airports to speed their entry into the UK, a privilege currently reserved for members of the European Economic Area (EEA) – comprising the 27 states of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Croatia.
Britain’s Chancellor to the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, made the surprise declaration while delivering the UK budget in the House of Commons.
“We’ll open the use of ePassport gates at Heathrow and other airports, currently only available to EEA nationals, to include visitors from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan,” Hammond said.
Britain’s budget included several measures designed to strengthen links with the five countries Hammond 
mentioned, part of a campaign to “send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world that Britain is open for business”.
Britain is due to transition out of the European Union from 29 March 2018 – just 150 days from now.
Despite predictions of potential chaos, the country seems set to proceed with its planned divorce from the EU.
A few Britons are so concerned about Brexit they are actually hoarding supplies in case of catastrophe. Some did the same in the run-up to the year 2000, when prophets of doom warned that a computer glitch dubbed the “Millennium bug” or “Y2K bug” would strike at midnight as the New Year came in, triggering total economic collapse and the end of civilisation.
In the event, nothing happened.
Written by Peter Needham
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Good move – the border control queues at Heathrow are a disgrace!
But the announcement has nothing to do with putting down a welcome mat for Australians, it has everything to do with the fact that Australia, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand have biometric passports, which can be speedily processed. I arrived at the Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome earlier this month where they had already set up a separate border control gate for these countries. The process is just like when arriving in Australia – scan your passport and pass through.
Good move – the border control queues at Heathrow are a disgrace!
But the announcement has nothing to do with putting down a welcome mat for Australians, it has everything to do with the fact that Australia, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand have biometric passports, which can be speedily processed. I arrived at the Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome earlier this month where they had already set up a separate border control gate for these countries. The process is just like when arriving in Australia – scan your passport and pass through.