Shut borders are making ordinary Aussies prisoners, like North Koreans

Australia’s border closures — at the hands of egomaniac politicians — are making us prisoners, like North Koreans. And the madness has just become very personal for Steve Price.

Australians, like the North Koreans, are being held prisoner in their own country by ‘border madness’. Picture: Anthony Wallace

This border madness in Australia that stops fully vaccinated residents moving around freely must stop if we are going to go back to any sense of normality.

It’s bad enough that the international border has been slammed shut since last March preventing passport-holding Australians from leaving their own country. Now, egomaniac premiers make it impossible to even travel interstate.

Remember back in March 2020 when Prime Minister Scott Morrison wisely shut down Aussie-bound flights from Covid countries to shore up our defences?

Most of us – me included — presumed this would be a temporary measure.

We never dreamt that, 18 months on, we would remain prisoners in our own country — a little like North Koreans.

Aside from the wealthy few able to convince border force they have business interests to see to overseas, and are prepared to stay away for three months, the rest of us are trapped.

Funny how many of those who have managed to get out needed to take a significant other to carry the luggage.

Why, for instance, does former Prime Minister Tony Abbott need to be in Taiwan this weekend?

Tony Abbott with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on October 7. Why is he there?

Reality TV stars and Hollywood actors seem to be able to come and go and, this summer, if you can hit a cricket ball or play tennis, the red carpet is out.

Incredibly — the privileged aside — as we sit here today the weekly intake of Australians allowed into their own country is a measly 300.

A senior travel business owner told me this week some inbound flights from the US are carrying as few as eight passengers in total.

If the international prison bars aren’t bad enough, the state border shutdowns are 20 times worse. Back when we were told we wouldn’t be travelling overseas in 2020, wasn’t there a concerted campaign to get Australians to see Australia?

Stop complaining about not being able to rent that villa in Seminyak or go skiing in Japan or take a train from Rome to Venice, suck it up and visit Kakadu or swim with the whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef.

So how come as a double-vaccinated, Covid-free Victorian as of three months ago — with AstraZeneca — I still can’t cross into my home state of South Australia?

From August 22, at 6pm, all Victorians from hotspot areas — unless deemed essential travellers — were banned from crossing that border by air or road.

Likewise, I can’t and may never again, be able to visit West Australia. I’m banned from the Northern Territory and Queensland, I can’t even get into Canberra of all places and bloody Tasmania wants 90 per cent vaccination coverage before anyone can visit.

Australians, like North Koreans, have become prisoners in their own country, states and even backyards. Picture: AFP

Tassie needs to be very careful about what it wishes for, given all it has left these days is tourism, single malt whiskey and pinot noir. You only need to visit Mona once, after all.

All that advertising money spent by Tourism Australia on Hamish Blake and travelling partner in crime Zoe Foster-Blake has literally been flushed down the toilet.

We have gone from prisoners in our own country to prisoners, in many cases, in our backyards.

And this is how crazy this internal border madness has become. If you are from Melbourne and if Premier Andrews’ mad rule of staying within 15km of your house was dropped — and there was no curfew — you would be free to go to NSW.

This despite the fact that by midweek there were almost three times the cases in Victoria than NSW.

Victorians are free to cross into NSW — but if you do — you won’t be allowed back into Victoria without going into quarantine for 14 days.

So you can go from the hottest Covid hotspot in Australia to a not-so-hot Covid hotspot, but can’t do that in reverse.

This nonsense for fully vaccinated Australians must stop. It is driving people mad and for me it again this week got very personal.

Last year I was prevented from visiting my 87-year-old mother who lives alone in Adelaide with no immediate family in SA.

Then last Friday night Ella McGregor-Dey, 91-years-old and my favourite aunty, died suddenly.

Last week — still driving despite her age — she had an accident and collided with one of Adelaide’s infamous Stobie poles (a telegraph pole made from cement and iron).

She was on the way to get her car serviced, ran off the road and the collision caved in her sternum, and she broke all her ribs.

She died just before midnight Friday after her extended family – children Robyn, Ian and Neil and assorted grandchildren – and my mother, Margo, gathered to say goodbye. The group numbered more than 20 and, after Ella came off the ventilator that was keeping her breathing, it was only a matter of time.

Interestingly, for someone in their 90s, Ella’s favourite music was from the band Queen and Aunty Ella loved Freddie Mercury.

Like when I played The Wichita Lineman to my father in palliative care a couple of years back, the music helped.

Steve Price will never forgive politicians such as SA Premier Steven Marshall for keeping him from a loved one’s interstate funeral. Picture: Emma Brasier

There will be a coronial investigation because Ella died in a road accident, but her funeral will be sooner rather than later, and I can’t go.

In life there are family and friends who you hope live forever and when they pass away you’d do anything to be there for the funeral.

Aunty Ella was one of those.

Border closures between states for vaccinated Australians are the product of power-hungry state politicians pandering to insular parochial small town voters to hang on to power.

As I watch my favourite aunty’s funeral service online and think of all the sacrifices she made for me I’ll remember to never forgive politicians like SA Premier Steven Marshall.

Ella deserved better.

DISLIKES

• Inner city Yarra council gouging already broke restaurant and cafe owner’s annual fees for outdoor dining.

• More evidence of appalling neglect in aged care.

• Melbourne’s global lockdown record.

Over-the-top demands by visiting elite sportsmen like England’s cricketers … if you don’t like it stay home.

LIKES

• Sydney’s sense of optimism as they head for Freedom Day on Monday next week.

• Football Australia’s swift decision to allow an independent inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct.

• Smaller builders allowed to get back on the tools after two weeks away

• On October 26th a family birthday might be held at an actual Melbourne restaurant even if outside.

Australia Today with Steve Price can be heard live from 7am weekdays via the LiSTNR app

Originally published as Shut borders are making ordinary Aussies prisoners, like North Koreans