Queensland border entry for AFL elite a ‘cruel’ double standard as everyday Australians knocked back
Australians have struggled to cross the border into Queensland for medical care and funerals, but AFL bosses coming from virus hot spots have gone straight to the pool bar.
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Federal ministers have blasted Queensland’s “cruel” and “perverse” decision to let AFL bosses fly in for the end of the footy season while people struggle to cross the border for medical care and funerals.
The government seized on the apparent double standard ahead of Friday’s crucial National Cabinet meeting, when Scott Morrison will unveil a COVID-19 hot spot definition designed to guide border restrictions.
While several states, including Victoria, are understood to be supportive of the plan, Queensland and Western Australia are holding firm.
The definition will be based on the density and location of virus cases, based on work completed by the national medical expert panel over the past fortnight.
It is understood it would be also be linked to new thresholds to strengthen the response to new outbreaks, including when federal resources are deployed.
The Prime Minister is pushing for states and territories to allow Australians to go to work and spend time with friends and families by Christmas.
“We cannot resign Australia to being a dislocated nation under COVID-19,” Mr Morrison said this week.
On Thursday, Josh Frydenberg said it was a “double standard” to see “footy officials sitting by the pool bar” in Queensland.
“At the same time, Queensland’s strict approach to borders has meant that a grandmother of seven who has just had brain surgery is being forced to isolate in a hotel room,” the Treasurer said.
“There have been many perverse outcomes of these strict approaches to borders and it has been very unfortunate as to the impact it is having on real people’s lives.
“This is about all of us being in this together as Australians.”
He was backed by Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, who said there was a “degree of hypocrisy” in Queensland’s “cruel” actions.
“These are raw, emotional issues,” Senator Birmingham said.
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the lack of cross-border communities in his state meant the hot spot plan would not be effective.
“We are not going to agree to bring down the borders, I have made that plain to the Prime Minister,” he said.
But Senator Birmingham accused some states of a “nonsensical” approach to border restrictions, even suggesting they were taking advantage of the government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy program in the face of the “immense” cost of the loss of interstate travel.
STUDENTS LEFT STRANDED IN VICTORIA
More than 400 boarders at schools in Victoria are unable to return directly to their interstate homes for the school holidays.
Border closures are leaving children as young as 11 forced to fly thousands of kilometres through major virus hot spots to see their families instead of driving a few hundreds kilometres in areas of low risk.
Australian Boarding Schools Association chief executive Richard Stokes said Victorian students were being told they had to fly from Melbourne to Sydney to be met by their parents before being driven home.
“They are mostly coming from areas where there are few cases like Ballarat and then flying through two hot spots — Melbourne and Sydney — and then travelling another 1000km by road to get home,” he said.
Children are stranded at schools like Geelong Grammar because their parents do not want them exposed to the coronavirus in Sydney and Melbourne airports.
Mr Stokes said the situation was “adding to the mental health pressures on 17-year-olds doing HSC or VCE”.
Even if they do get home, most will have to spend the entire holidays in self-isolation at home while other students enjoy the break without restrictions.
Claire Butler, a NSW mother whose children attend Ballarat Grammar five hours away, has been told her kids will have to come through Sydney airport for testing.
“Why can’t we have a direct corridor on the NSW border where they are tested and then isolate at home? It’s the safest option,” she said.
Ms Butler, NSW president of the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association, said a national solution was needed.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan will demand at a meeting with state and territory ministers on Friday the creation of a “boarding school bubble’’ to permit kids to visit families during the September school holidays and quarantine in their own homes.
The chairman of the federal parliamentary committee on education, Andrew Laming, yesterday slammed the “cruel Guantanamo Bay’’ treatment of teenagers. “This verges on cruel and unusual punishment belonging in Guantanamo Bay (US military detention camp)’’, he said.
Federal Minister Regional Education Andrew Gee called on state ministers to show “compassion and common sense’’.
There are 3000 boarders at more than 30 schools in Victoria and 14 per cent live outside the state.
- Susie O’Brien and Natasha Bita
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