It’s next to impossible to actually get into the country at this point in any case. The whole of Australia is only allowing in 1500 people per week into hotel quarantine - a drop from over 3000 heavily lobbied for by the QLD premier who went to the olympics and then thought that she deserved one of the 214 places per day for the whole country more than one of the tens of thousands of Australians who are desperate to get home at the moment.<p>Meanwhile as mentioned in other comments we are letting in celebrities and sports players - we hosted the bloody tennis early this year and recently in Melbourne there were multiple large sporting events with international teams - why the hell are the government allowing these players to take valuable spots? Not to mention we come out of a serious lockdown and then they immediately allow 20-80 THOUSAND people to go to the stadiums… where there were several covid transmissions.<p>Screw this countries leadership. I’m in a long distance relationship with someone overseas and there is zero consideration for the severe mental health impacts that this has had on myself and my partner, and zero response to the thousands of other people in a situation similar to mine, or that of people with sick relatives, be it if they need to leave Australia to visit or non Australians arriving into the country.
Just one reason why I hate this country and it’s absolutely moronic conservative government filled with literal rapists, Hillsong religious nut jobs, homophobes, bigots, and people who funnel our wealth directly into the pockets of billionaires.
How does Australia improve its quarantine situation by preventing people from <i>leaving</i>? Halting the flow of incoming visitors temporarily makes a certain amount of sense, but a departing person lessens demand for local resources.<p>this is a first, prior to this I have only heard of such exit controls in the USSR and similar totalitarian regimes.
Wow. In the last week we have seen the Prime Minister call in the Australia Defense Forces to enforce lockdown in Sydney[1]. We have seen the Police guarding apartment blocks to prevent residents from leaving[2] and now there's a ban on foreign residents leaving the country? As if these things weren't jarring enough, Hollywood celebrities seem to have been given great leeway in being able to to come and go as they please.[3]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defence-force-called-in-to-help-with-sydney-covid-19-lockdown-enforcement-20210729-p58e5e.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defence-force-called-in-...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-27/blacktown-apartment-block-under-police-guard-over-covid/100325594" rel="nofollow">https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-27/blacktown-apartment-b...</a><p>[3] <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55851074" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55851074</a>
WTF happened to Australia? I was under the impression it was a "take no shit" kind of place. It seems like they've become some sort of clown world police state. The Government response is completely over the top considering the situation.<p><a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/australia/" rel="nofollow">https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/australia/</a><p>Is it because socialized medicine can't cope with a surge in illness (Canada was another example) exposing the poor state of socialized healthcare after spending 10's of billions a year in tax payer funds. Somehow the USA with it's private system was able to scale and accommodate massive amounts of patients without collapse while these other countries were invoking the worlds longest lock downs and basically shutting down everything to try and save a healthcare system that barely functions under normal conditions (Canada as an example, visit any Toronto Hospital).
I was glad for Australia’s straightforward “lock down to zero until we can do something better” strategy but since then several “better”s have arrived and the Morrison government has been unable to accomplish anything. In fact the whole lockdown regime appears to have been a lucky first guess, as no sensible action has subsequently been taken.<p>And locking your own citizens <i>out</i> has never been legitimately defensible. But Australia has long taken a “fuck you” attitude to her ex pats, unlike other countries who court them as valuable members of the country.
Here's former PM Malcolm Turnbull (knifed by current PM Morrison) sharing a first hand account of a resident leaving for Italy <a href="https://twitter.com/TurnbullMalcolm/status/1423426989608693760?s=19" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/TurnbullMalcolm/status/14234269896086937...</a>