‘I’ve escaped!’: Aussies use Kiwi bubble as back door to defy travel ban

Australians desperate to return to lives and loved ones overseas are using the New Zealand travel bubble to defy the outward travel ban, despite threats of hefty fines or even jail time.

Art teacher Tim Byrnes is one of the first Australians to make it out via this route, flying to Auckland last week and then to Istanbul on Friday night. He is travelling on to Russia, where he had been living since 2016 and is eligible for residency.

“I’ve escaped!” he said. “I get to go back to my life.”

Australian Tim Byrnes at Auckland Airport before travelling on to Russia.Credit: Becki Moss

The travel bubble opened on Monday, allowing people to travel freely between Australia and New Zealand without quarantine. The deal does not involve New Zealand stopping Australians from onward travel and The Sun-Herald and The Age have spoken to many Australians keen to exploit this loophole.

Elaine from Sydney’s northern beaches, who requested her last name be withheld, said she was in “total despair” about being separated from her family in Britain and planned to leave via New Zealand if she could not get an exemption.

Those who try the New Zealand route to flee overseas risk large fines or imprisonment, after Health Minister Greg Hunt updated the Biosecurity Act last Sunday. The changes ensure that Australians who travel overseas via New Zealand will be asked to justify their actions on compassionate or urgent medical grounds when they eventually return to Australia.

Mr Hunt told the Sun-Herald and The Age that the exemption to the international travel ban “only applies where a person is leaving Australia to travel to and stay in New Zealand, not where the traveller intends to travel to New Zealand for the purpose of . . . travelling to a third country.”

Tim Byrnes at Auckland Aiport.Credit: Becki Moss

“Travellers should be aware that international travel to any other country continues to pose a significant risk to public health.”

Since March last year, Australian citizens and permanent residents have required an exemption to travel overseas, as part of Australia’s measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, on the basis that they could import the virus when they return. This is done through an emergency determination in the Biosecurity Act, which can be updated by Mr Hunt without it going to parliament.

The Act already allows a fine of up to $6660 for failure to comply with an entry requirement, and $66,600 or five years imprisonment or both for failure to comply with an emergency determination.

However, Professor Kim Rubenstein from the University of Canberra, a citizenship expert, said this was probably invalid.

Tim Byrnes has finally been able to return to Russia because of the New Zealand bubble. Credit: Becki Moss

“There is a very strong argument to say that even the measures preventing Australians from leaving are unlawful and therefore any attempt to criminalise that or to provide some sanction would be unlawful,” she said.

Professor Rubenstein recently wrote a legal opinion supporting a case Free and Open Australia took to the United Nations on behalf of stranded Australians.

The travel ban has been especially distressing for the nation’s 4.4 million dual citizens or anyone with partners or close family members overseas.

People travelling to countries not considered high risk can request an exemption from the travel ban for compassionate reasons, to conduct urgent business, or if they are travelling for longer than three months. Exemptions are hard to obtain.

Zali Steggall, the Independent member for Warringah, said she supported the government closing the country’s border as an emergency measure in March last year but it had gone on too long.

“It has now been over a year and the government needs a sensible long-term plan,” Ms Steggall said. “I’m not surprised people are taking drastic measures. It sadly highlights how dire the situation has become for them.”

Mr Byrnes returned to Australia for a legal matter in January last year and was visiting his parents in Tamworth when the borders closed. Australians who are ordinarily resident overseas - based on their electronic travel records - do not require an exemption to leave but Mr Byrnes did not realise this was the case until he had been here six days over the time limit. He then applied for an exemption to leave, since he has a job in Moscow and a girlfriend, but it was refused.

Mr Byrnes said he had encountered several other people in Auckland who were watching his progress and hoped to do the same, but they were being “a bit paranoid and careful” and did not want to speak publicly in case they were prevented from leaving.

Mr Byrnes said he did not plan to return to Australia until after the pandemic and he was not concerned about potential penalties from the Australian government.

“Once the biosecurity threat goes, I think it’s a chapter that the government will probably want to forget,” he said.

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