Can’t take anymore: Families on brink plead with Premier
They are the forgotten Queenslanders – ignored while stranded away from their homes and families. Now they’re taking their pleas for mercy from heartless state government bureaucrats public. READ THEIR LETTERS
QLD News
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These are the heartbreaking stories of families ripped apart, cancer patients stranded and new Queenslanders homeless because they cannot get exemptions to cross the border.
Time and time again the Queensland Government is being accused of having no compassion with many forced to miss seeing dying relatives one last time, being kept apart from family and in tragic cases losing loved ones.
In another series of ‘Dear Premier’ letters, everyday Queenslanders have shared their stories, including some from south of the border who had plans to relocate to the Sunshine State.
It comes as those impacted by what they claim is a flawed exemptions unit speak out, some horrified that a year on from their own struggles, very little has changed.
In August last year Ballina mum Kimberley Brown was told she would need emergency surgery due to rare pregnancy condition, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.
Doctors believed she would be forced to stay in hotel quarantine for 14 days before the urgent procedure, so instead she and husband Scott were forced to wait 16 hours for a care flight to Sydney before the procedure was performed several hours after arrival.
Tragically one of the couple’s babies died in utero.
Ms Brown isn’t alone, she joins a long list of people who have been forced to suffer through tragedies and heartbreak because of strict Covid and border restrictions.
In September last year former Brisbane resident Sarah Caisip, who now lives in Canberra, was not allowed to attend her father’s funeral after he died while she was in hotel quarantine waiting to visit him.
Eventually Queensland Health allowed her to view his body, after the funeral, alone and dressed head to tow in confronting PPE.
In June this year Mark Killian, a fully vaccinated man who had completed two weeks hotel quarantine in Sydney after travelling from LA to see his dying father in Queensland was only permitted into the state to see him after media involvement.
In July Queensland man Anthony McCormick made a mad dash from Canada to see his dying mother in Queensland. He received an exemption from the NSW Government, but no response from Queensland Health.
His mother died when he was just two days into his hotel quarantine in Queensland.
While also in July a fully vaccinated nurse living in Melbourne was forced to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks after her father died in a crash that also seriously injured her brother. Her request for an exemption to be at her brother’s bedside denied.
One year on from her family’s tragedy, Ms Brown said something had to change.
“It’s pretty tough still, it is one of those things I don’t think we will ever get over,” she said.
“To say we can’t cross an invisible line on a map to get healthcare an hour away from us, we have to travel 9 hours away from us, it’s just so stupid.
“Eden, our surviving little girl is doing super well but she still has a lot of respiratory issues from being such a prem baby.”
Ms Brown said she was never contacted by the Queensland Government.
“The thing that hits home for us is it’s so picky and choosy of who can go over and who can’t and what it really comes down to, in our case, talking about children, a parent who has a sick child,” she said.
“They are out of touch with what is happening here, it baffles me that they think this is okay.”
Meanwhile Dominique Facer, the mother of little boy Memphis, who was stranded with his grandparents in rural NSW for eight weeks said there was no compassion.
“You’re still seeing stories on the news, I just don’t get it, the common sense and compassion behind it, there is just none whatsoever,” she said.
“It’s getting beyond a joke now, it’s affecting so many people and it needs to stop, it really does.”
DEAR PREMIER
I came to NSW for planned surgery. During my hospital stay, we went into lockdown. My attempt at crossing the border failed as I had apparently “stayed too long”. No one said there was a time limit. I’d be very happy to drive home, self quarantine and use the Check-in app. Your actions, speech and demeanour shows you are at a loss to find reasons to keep us out. I have attached doctors’ letters and everything else requested, but my exemption request to drive home was rejected. I cannot do hotel quarantine as I use a CLAP machine and they are not allowed. You are discriminating against us. Do better.
Leonie Bunyan
DEAR PREMIER
We’re relocating to Queensland for a better lifestyle and to better the mental health of our children. We applied for an exemption to home quarantine due to our daughters’ mental health and sensory issues but three weeks later we still haven’t had any communication from the Queensland government in regards to our application so we applied for border passes that were then voided and we had to wait to apply again, which we have, and still we haven’t heard anything. Our daughters’ mental health has since gotten worse as we are staying with family in a three-bedroom house where there is four adults and four children. Our daughter’s anxiety has gotten so bad she has now been prescribed diazepam – she’s 14 and shouldn’t have to live like this. We have a house waiting for us and I have been vaccinated with my first Pfizer shot and my fiance is double-vaxxed. We just want to be in our own home again. How is this fair?
From Temeika Garner
DEAR PREMIER
I am one of the “forgotten” Queenslanders trapped in Victoria, unable to drive home. It has been nine weeks now, with no light at the end of the tunnel. Cannot afford flights, hotel quarantine and car transport. Certainly not a Covid-19 threat to the community, as I have been sitting in lockdown for two months. Where is the logic of preventing people from driving back and home quarantine? Stop treating us like disease-ridden criminals. We are Queenslanders – and more importantly human beings.
Miles Cook
DEAR PREMIER
I am very lucky. I have a loving family and a great job that allows me to travel our beautiful country. On the 25th of August, I was scheduled to fly home after seven weeks away from my family. I had an approved border pass, I had bags packed and was prepared to do my two weeks quarantine.
That same day, you ripped my heart out, you “paused” quarantine with two hours notice and at that point, I had to turn my car around on my way to the airport. You killed my joy.
I agree with border controls, I do not agree with the lack of process, lack of transparency and the lack of empathy.
Family is my everything and three weeks later I still have no answers. I am still no closer to my home, my wife and four children.
Shame on you!
Michael Taylor
DEAR PREMIER
I drove to Sydney on June 28 for cancer treatment. Despite your closing the border, I couldn’t return before my treatment was completed. Now that my treatment is finished I would love to pack my things in my car and drive home, but I cannot.
My treatment has been expensive and I’ve been in almost total isolation for the past 12 weeks, going only to my medical appointments and to buy food. I’m sure you can appreciate what a stressful time this has been for me.
Now I’m expected to pay for an airfare plus freight charges for my car, plus more than $3000 for hotel quarantine. I’ve had to pay my council rates for my Coolangatta home while I’ve been away but I can’t go home to my own bed. This is inhumane treatment of your own citizens.
Catherine Brodie,
Coolangatta
DEAR PREMIER
I am now 29 weeks pregnant and my partner is stuck interstate after working but now having lost his job due to lockdowns and he is unable to return to us. Hotel quarantine is far too expensive now with my partner losing his job. We haven’t seen him since April. I am a high-risk pregnancy and very likely to have the baby prematurely before 34 weeks. I’m running out of time to get him home. My mental health is struggling. I cry every day. This is supposed to be an exciting and special time for a family. It’s heartbreaking to think my partner might miss the birth of his first child and to be here to help me while I’m pregnant and after the baby is born. Please show us some compassion.
Kayla Williams
DEAR PREMIER
My wife has been having panic attacks inside hotel quarantine. We applied for an exemption, Qld Health never cared. We ask for a room with fresh air because my wife could not breathe. No one cares. I have a toddler and we are put in a small room because they don’t consider us families. We have medical certificates, everything. No one cares, the reality is that Qld government is inhumane. I am planning to start a class action about all the breaches of human rights they are committing. This hotel has had three outbreaks and I’m not surprised. We even had the ambulance request cancelled by the police. What happened to Australia?
Ian De Oliveira
DEAR PREMIER
I am a Ballina resident of 20-plus years. My husband lost his job of 30 years in Ballina and had been jobless since April 2021. He had been suicidal, suffered depression and anxiety. We have three children, a mortgage. He finally got a job offer in Mackay as work is limited here in regional NSW, but it was the day before you slammed the borders shut. We cannot move forward or relocate so he can begin his job to provide for his family until you allow us to drive to Mackay. We are vaccinated. We have had no Covid cases. We cannot fly or hotel quarantine – we are broke! We have ripped through our savings. We cannot get money from thin air, our mortgage has already been paused and exceeded the time limit. Please have some compassion for those who are struggling. Have a heart. You are killing the everyday Australians the longer you beat your chest to prove some irrelevant point. Open the border to the border bubble fully.
Regards, Simone Paff
DEAR PREMIER
Am I a Queenslander?
I was born in the Mater hospital and I was raised and educated in Brisbane. I own a house in Wynnum. My parents live in Cleveland. I’m a member of the Queensland SES.
But for the last four years I’ve lived in regional NSW where I moved for work after my Brisbane-based employer went into administration.
I don’t want an exemption or an exception. All I want is to be given the same level of trust you’ve given thousands of Queenslanders by being allowed to quarantine at home for 14 days. I am fully vaccinated. I can cross the border and be home in under two hours. I don’t even need to stop.
Thank you
Natalie Garratt
DEAR PREMIER
We are Julieta and Dante, 2, little Queensland residents that were travelling to our new home on the 27th of August.
Your sudden decision has left us homeless in NSW, with Mum and Dad juggling to keep us safe and happy.
We notice all around us, our parents aren’t happy any more.
Mum is concerned because we are not making it to school and she had to start her new Brisbane job remotely in these conditions. She cries every day.
Dad makes the numbers every night and he doesn’t seem happy any more.
We listen to them begging people over the phone for a pass that never comes and now we are feeling insecure that we may not have our belongings back again, we don’t have books or toys because mum packed for hotel quarantine and all our home was taken to Brisbane.
Our family is not the same as it used to be.
Can you please help us to make our way home? Our border pass is all what we need, it is all what we have waited for the last 20 days
Karina Guajardo –
Mum of Julieta and Dante
DEAR PREMIER
My family of four moved to Canberra from Townsville in 2020, and the last year and a bit have been hell. My mum died in June and my sister in July, so we made plans to get rid of everything we owned and drive home to be with our family, but then the borders closed.
The quarantine border pass process will only give us a few days notice to leave, which isn’t enough. My kids cry every night for their family and think they’ll never see them again.
Thank you
Renee White
DEAR PREMIER
Please don’t make us homeless from next week. Dear Premier, please do not rip our family apart.
Dear Premier, please consider us all as humans and our basic rights.
I have an amazing family of five: a daughter who is five, a son who is two, my husband and my mother who all planned to move to Queensland.
We found the home of our dreams, offered and while it was undergoing settlement, hell broke loose.
Once our home settled, we realised we won’t be able to drive to even see it, let alone move into it.
Now weeks have passed, I have had to think about how to get us, our pets and all our things to our new house – which by the way has been a mission.
Every day direction changes from Queensland Health, every day the call centre gives a different answer. Our flights have been cancelled twice and now from September 23 we will be homeless.
The move with quarantine will put us in debt of over $17k – this is an inexcusable amount to ask families to have to pay!
Sleepless nights, vomiting from stress, fighting with the husband and continuous anxiety is what my days feel like now.
Mentally, I cannot take any more.
Please Premier, consider home quarantine and let us and everyone get home!
Live strong and with passion,
Krystal Aul
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