NT should reach out to help more Aussies stranded overseas

THE NT’s health-led management of its quarantine facilities and border entry points has emerged as arguably Australia’s best model — which is why the Territory should put up its hand to take on more Australians returning from overseas.

• NT Government in discussions with Commonwealth about using Howard Springs for returning Aussies
• NT Government ‘open’ to taking in more overseas arrivals at the Howard Springs facility
• MP Luke Gosling blasts Australia’s international arrivals cap

THE Northern Territory’s health-led management of its quarantine facilities and border entry points has emerged as arguably Australia’s best model.

In this vein the jurisdiction should put up its hand to take on a sustainable number of Australians returning from overseas.

There are about 18,800 Aussies stranded overseas who want to come home but cannot because there is no space on already sparse flights or they simply cannot afford to pay for tickets.

If Australia is supposed to be “in this together”, surely the Territory can find it within itself to put out a helping hand.

NT Health Department workers in Darwin International Airport's border control area, where travellers are screened to see if they are free to come in or must be sent to mandatory quarantine. Picture: Che Chorley

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We did it when people needed to be evacuated from Wuhan, and for passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

There were no outbreaks on our soil the last time we helped the nation, and since then we’ve welcomed more than 70,000 travellers, cycled 3000 people through mandatory quarantine facilities and ushered in more than 1000 US Marines without much drama.

The NT government, as this paper has noted many times, is broke, and thus the federal government will rightly need to help out financially if the Territory does put up its hand for international arrivals.

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Already a small minority is using the Howard Springs quarantine facility as some kind of dystopian tropical resort before buggering off to other states, leaving Territorian taxpayers to foot part of their bills.

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