Sick baby trapped by Palaszczuk bureaucrats’ border cruelty

Queensland Health is blocking an offer from Angel Flight to fly a couple and their chronically sick baby home from Sydney on a private plane.

Heartless Palaszczuk government bureaucrats are insisting a Queensland family trapped in Sydney with a desperately ill little boy split up to quarantine in Brisbane — rather than allow them to take up a charity’s offer to fly them to their remote property to isolate at home.

The shocking case is just the latest example of Queensland health officials refusing to accommodate special needs despite the family’s mother asking the government to “show a bit of thought and compassion”.

Jessie Evans and Billy Blacker with their son Rocka in Double Bay. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Jessie Evans, her partner Billy Blacker, and their four-month-old son Rocka, who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1, drove to Sydney last month from their remote property at Jandowae so that Rocka could undertake treatment at Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick.

While they planned to ask for an exemption to drive back home across the border and isolate at their 300 acre rural property 250km west of Brisbane, Queensland health officials have told them they must fly home via Brisbane and quarantine in hotels and hospitals.

This is despite charity group Angel Flight’s offer to fly them on a private, sterile aircraft to an airstrip near their home.

This means that Jessie and Rocka will still be forced to isolate at a local hospital in Brisbane for two weeks while Billy stays in hotel quarantine at the family’s expense, costing them precious time together as a family.

“We applied for an exemption to drive home and home quarantine and eliminate the risk for Rocka,” said Jessie.

“Show some compassion” … Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“On Tuesday afternoon they declined our exemption to drive in and home quarantine.”

“The delegate who called me said they don’t give a reason for the denial but said they suspected it was because of the length of the drive.”

“But we just want to get home safely — we are doing this all for Rocka.

“We have all had negative Covid tests and, because he is immunocompromised, the longer we stay here or go through airports the more we are putting him at risk of catching something.”

“I want the government to show a bit of thought and compassion.

“We didn’t come here to go on holiday and if they had a kid in the same situation they’d do the same thing,” she said.

Jessie Evans and Billy Blacker with their son Rocka in Sydney. Picture: Justin Lloyd

This week the family was offered a flight home via Angel Flight, which coordinates non-emergency medical and compassionate flights for country people.

In recent months the group has helped a number of families trapped behind state borders, most recently reuniting three-year-old Memphis Francis with his parents, after he was kept apart from them for three months by border closures.

Angel Flight CEO Marjorie Pagani confirmed the charity had sent an urgent letter to the Queensland government offering to fly the terminally ill baby home from Sydney to his parents’ rural property in Queensland, using private, secure and sterile air transport, with no exposure risks.

She said it was disappointing the government would not spare the family the huge costs and ongoing trauma of family separation, and allow isolation at the family farm rather than the requirement currently imposed, of 14 days hotel quarantine in Brisbane midway during his journey.

According to Ms Pagani, on Wednesday the Premier’s Exemption Team advised Angel Flight that they could only fly the family as far as Brisbane.

Angel Flight has crew and aircraft standing by awaiting further review of its decision not to allow the 4-month old to come directly home.

The charity was made aware of the case by Michael Kauter of Strategic Political Counsel, who put the family in touch with Angel Flight.

“We’ve been working with the charity over the past few months to get vulnerable people across borders.

“When we heard about this case, we knew what we had to do,” he said.

Queensland Senator Amanda Stoker slammed the government’s decision, saying, “Being trapped interstate is bad enough, now Queenslanders have to deal with a poorly designed system that ignores their individual circumstances.”

“Queenslanders deserve better than this Labor government.”

Ms Black said the decision was incredibly disappointing given the circumstances.

“We don’t travel to this kind of place for no reason,” she said.