Rita Panahi: Why giving up basic rights is dangerous territory
It’s easy to see why Australia’s borders are closed to new arrivals right now but what possible justification is there to stop citizens from leaving? The cavalier manner in which the Morrison government is wielding its unprecedented powers during this pandemic should trouble all thinking Australians, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rita Panahi. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A feature of living in a totalitarian country is the inability to leave. There’s a reason why the unfortunate citizens of despotic nations risk their lives to escape to the abundant freedoms of the West.
But right now there exists one democratic country in the world that is preventing its citizens from leaving: Australia.
Not only is most of the country contending with state and territory border closures, but we are trapped on this idyllic island thanks to a federal government that is becoming all too comfortable with imposing draconian measures.
The cavalier manner in which the Morrison government is wielding its unprecedented powers should trouble all thinking Australians who have not been scared witless by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One can rationalise why Australia’s borders are closed to new arrivals but what possible justification is there to prevent citizens from leaving? Particularly when you consider that upon their return, every individual is required to submit to 14 days of quarantine, that they pay for, and only allowed to rejoin the community after testing negative.
Surely with the hundreds of empty hotels we have around the country, it’d be easy to manage returning citizens and residents. After all, every state bar Victoria managed to run a competent hotel quarantine program.
Sadly, a great many Australians are so terrified of coronavirus that they’re willing to sacrifice hard fought for freedoms.
We saw during the first lockdown that there was no shortage of Victorians willing to defend even the most absurdly illogical restrictions that were not imposed anywhere else in the country, such as bans on fishing and golf.
But as we now know, having the country’s toughest and longest lockdown didn’t save Victoria from a disastrous second wave because keeping healthy people at home doesn’t stop a virus. What does crush the curve is running a methodical hotel quarantine program backed by timely contact tracing — two areas where Victoria has failed spectacularly.
The incursion on Victorians’ liberties goes beyond banning them from work, school and even a restorative trip to the beach.
Australians’ ability to travel to another country is inhibited, with three out of four applicants being refused permission.
Some pen pusher in the federal bureaucracy will determine whether you can attend your son’s wedding, see an ailing loved one for the last time, or attend to important business matters. There is no reason given for a refusal and to add insult to injury the names of those formally refused are sent to Border Force who then send “alarming” letters that make unsuccessful applicants feel like criminals.
When the outbound travel ban was put in place in March, the justification was that returning travellers would put the community at risk. But that was before regulations were tightened to require compulsory hotel quarantine and the full cost to be borne by the traveller.
A couple of politicians, from both sides of the political divide, are starting to agitate about the restriction. Wentworth MP Dave Sharma has pointed out that no other country is “imposing an exit permit system, like we’ve got in Australia” while Warringah MP Zali Steggall has compared the country to a “prison state”
Of course there are exemptions: athletes, politicians and media can still travel overseas and soon we will begin welcoming back overseas students. Under a pilot scheme, 300 full fee-paying students from Asia will arrive in Adelaide with many more to follow. Foreign citizens will be prioritised over Australians stuck overseas and unable to return due to the government’s stringent quota system.
And while sports stars and certain media can come and go, the great majority of the population is denied basic freedoms.
Some Victorians may consider the issue moot given they cannot even travel to the next suburb, let alone interstate or overseas, but we should not be so dismissive about out rights being infringed upon.
And let’s not be blind to the consequences of keeping our borders closed to tourists indefinitely.
In the absence of a vaccine we must learn to live with this virus or face an economic, social and human catastrophe unlike anything we’ve seen. I wrote earlier this month about the lack of a long-term strategy and how Australia will cope if there is no effective vaccine within the next two years.
The Prime Minister has since been asked this very question but has not provided a single, coherent answer. It’s as if there is no plan B.
All our eggs are in the vaccine basket, despite the fact that an effective vaccine has never been developed for a coronavirus.
IN SHORT: Devastating news for Dan Andrews with confirmation that 99 per cent of Victorian COVID-19 cases are linked to hotel quarantine and with the ADF shooting down his false claims that troops were not available. Lieutenant General John Frewen told a Senate hearing ADF personnel were offered from March 27 onwards.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist