Australians stranded overseas to be addressed at National Cabinet
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is taking a hard line on bringing home Australians stranded overseas because of COVID-19, telling state premiers to sort out hotel quarantine.
QLD News
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison is playing hardball on bringing Australians back from overseas, saying “the planes are coming” and it will be up to the Premiers to sort out the hotel quarantine.
The issue will come to a head in National Cabinet on Friday, as increasing the space for hotel quarantine for Aussies stranded overseas hits high on the agenda.
The Federal Government announced yesterday Queensland would double it’s intake to 1000 arrivals a week – without informing Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk first.
There are about 26,000 Australians stuck overseas attempting to return home, prompting the government to lift the international arrival cap nationally from 4000 people a week to 6000.
Mr Morrison said the issue had been discussed at the previous National Cabinet meeting.
“The planes will land with people on them and they’ll be arriving. It’s a decision. It’s not a proposal,” he said.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles accused the Federal Government of not contributing to the cost of quarantining international arrivals.
“It’s massively (resource) intensive on our police, on our health care services and yet we do it with no assistance with the Commonwealth – even for international travellers when it really should be their job,” he said.
There are 347 Australian Defence Force personnel supporting quarantine at hotels and airports in Queensland, as well as another 152 helping state police with border control, according to the Defence department.
Mr Miles also acknowledged that hotel quarantining had also kept the community “incredibly safe”.
National Cabinet will also be presented with an update from Jane Halton, a member of the National COVID Coordination Commission, who has been conducting a review into the hotel quarantine system across the country.
