Families cancel Christmas holidays over cost of Queensland’s PCR test mandate

Families have been forced to cancel their Christmas holidays due to the cost of getting PCR tests, with one family revealing they will be out of pocket almost $1050.

Families have revealed how their Christmas plans have been left in ruin due to the high cost of getting a PCR test needed to enter Queensland.

Until Queensland hits 80 per cent double dosed, anyone entering the state must take a PCR test no more than 72 hours before arrival. The tests cost $145 each.

Queensland mum Karen Whitaker said plans to travel to New South Wales for Christmas had been cancelled due to how much it would cost her family.

“There goes our holiday to see my in-laws for Christmas because to get back home it would cost our family of seven $1050.” she said.

Tina Craft was hoping to travel to New South Wales with her sons to reunite with their father this Christmas. Picture: Supplied

Ms Whittaker said even once the vaccination target was hit, she would think twice about leaving Queensland due to the state government’s inconsistent Covid policies.

“We all got vaccinated so we could travel freely to visit but I don’t trust this government to keep borders open … ”.

Tina Craft, from a farming family in Tenterfield, NSW, said the $600 it would cost her family for PCR tests had forced the cancellation of a trip to Queensland to visit relatives for Christmas.
“We have been through a drought, fires and floods and it’s not fair at all to the families who’ve toughed it out the last couple of years,” Ms Craft said.

“We would only go for a couple of nights … my dad and stepmum would come down but they are on the pension so $300 is a lot of money for them too.”

Queensland mum Alison Bellamy said her family’s only wish this Christmas was reunion with her husband and father of her two children, who has been stranded in NSW for more than four months.

Anyone travelling to Queensland from mid-December must take a PCR test no more than 72 hours before arriving.

Ms Bellamy said her kids were “desperate” to see their dad.

“He is only able to come home to Queensland for three days at Christmas so that’s one test we need to pay for, but we are travelling back down with him for a week and driving home so that’s another four tests – $750 all up”

Ms Bellamy said the situation was “frustrating” especially when they had “always done the right thing”.

“We are all fully-vaccinated and now this will cost hundreds of dollars just to get back home to Queensland. Happy to take a test, however we shouldn’t have to pay for this – it’s really disappointing.”

Kiani Smith, who lives with her young family in Tasmania, could be forced to make the “heartbreaking” decision to cancel holiday plans to Queensland if she is unable to secure a loan “just to pay for the tests”.

Ms Smith said the tests are a “huge financial burden” that would leave the family with “no spending money” if they travelled to Queensland to celebrate Christmas with extended family.

“We have paid for things to do in Queensland but have about $600 spending money and now with these tests we will be left with absolutely nothing,” she said.

She said it would be a “huge loss” for the family who have already paid for theme park tickets and other expenses.

“It’s taken all year to save just to be able to afford to take our children on their first holiday so it’s really hard knowing what the right thing to do is,” she said.

“We have been told that even our five-year-old and two-year-old will need a test, even though they can enter unvaccinated so now not only do I have to pull $600 out of thin air … I have to subject my two perfectly healthy children to a test just so we can go on a holiday and visit family.”

Ms Smith said the family was happy to be tested “if that’s what is required” but are fully-vaccinated and now feel like they are being hit with a $600 bill for “doing the right thing”.

“It feels like we are being punished and our Christmas is now up in the air.”

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath, responding to criticism of the government’s PCR test mandate, said it would be “pretty irresponsible” to lower entry requirements by allowing rapid antigen testing.

Ms D’Ath said the federal government should use Medicare to subsidise private pathologists administering the PCR tests.

“This is something that the Morrison government should seriously turn its mind to,” she said.

“It shouldn’t be a matter of whether someone can afford it or not,” she said.