Coronavirus: No charge for Australians evacuated from Wuhan

Australians stuck in Wuhan will not be charged for evacuation as the federal government pushes ahead with plans to repatriate more than 100 citizens as early as tonight.

Australians stuck in Wuhan will not be charged for their evacuation as the federal government pushes ahead with plans to begin flying more than 100 citizens to Christmas Island from China as early as this evening in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

While final approval has not been given for the evacuation mission by the Chinese government, federal authorities appear confident the flight out of Wuhan will be given the green light.

The Qantas flight organised to bring stranded Australians home from Wuhan is about to leave Sydney on its first leg to Hong Kong before flying on to the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

Flight QF6031 conducted by a Boeing 747-400 registered VH-OEE is expected to reach Wuhan about 11.30pm local time before returning to Australia at 2.30am.

Details of the flight have been kept under wraps while the Australian government sought a permit from the Chinese government to gain entry to Wuhan.

Liberal Member of Chisholm Gladys Liu posted via her WeChat account in Mandarin that Australian evacuees would receive an email from the government telling them to arrive at Wuhan airport at 6pm on Sunday. It said the flight would depart at 2.30am on Monday, February 3 and is expected to reach Perth at 10am before transferring the evacuees to military flights to Christmas Island.

Sources in Wuhan also confirmed some Australians trapped in the city were told that the flight will start check-in as early as 6pm on Sunday. One Chinese mother of two Australian children said DFAT had put them on “a reserve list” with a “partner aircraft”.

Citizens stuck in the epicentre of the coronavirus had been told they would have to pay $1000 to get on a Qantas Boeing 747 flight to Christmas Island, causing many to rebuff Australian offers of repatriation.

But on Sunday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that the Department of Foreign Affairs had given the government incorrect information and no Australians would be charged to be repatriated. 

“The Department of Foreign Affairs have said publicly that they provided the incorrect information originally – particularly about the arrangements in place when people came out of Cairo during the Arab Spring,” he told ABC News.

Australian evacuees from China’s Hubei province won’t be charged $1000 for the flight to #ChristmasIsland, says @Josh_Frydenberg.

The Treasurer tells @David_Speers the PM was provided with incorrect advice about the commercial arrangements. #Insiders #auspol #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/PZWvO5KtGR

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) February 1, 2020

“He was provided with incorrect advice about the commercial arrangements. We won’t be charging the people to come to Australia without a cost incurred.

“They’re not going to be charged … it’s very clear that the advice that we got originally was incorrect,”

Just an hour earlier, the Home Affairs Minister defended the $1000 charge, telling Sky News the fee was “common sense.”

“Most people will have paid much more than that for a return commercial flight,.” he told Sky News.

“There’s also a precedent I’m advised from DFAT … there will be a significant expense to the Australian taxpayer.”

“I don’t think it’s inappropriate that there is that charge, that we are recovering at least some of the costs for the charter flight. I think that is a common sense position.”

Mr Frydenberg also said that approval for the evacuations had not yet been granted by the Chinese regime.

“We’re working through the issues, but we hope that approval is imminent,” Mr Frydenberg said.

More than 200 of 600 registered Australian citizens are expected to leave Wuhan for Christmas Island.

Five charter planes, including three RAAF aircraft, are scheduled to bring more equipment, supplies and workers to Christmas Island on Sunday ahead of the quarantining of what could be more than 200 Australians on the Indian Ocean territory.

The Australian has been told the number of Australian citizens who have registered interest in being evacuated from Wuhan has risen incrementally since Friday when an estimated 150 people were expected.

The evacuation comes as all nonresidents travelling through China will be banned from coming to Australia and fears grow the coronavirus will tip the nation into recession.

The government has been awaiting the approval of the Chinese Communist regime to land an assisted flight in Hubei province, where Chinese authorities have quarantined up to 50 million people.

“It’s going to be increasingly difficult given the circumstances, given Qantas stopping all of their flights from February 9, to see more of these assisted flights,” Mr Dutton said.

The federal government will deny entry to Australia to foreign travellers who have left or passed through mainland China amid the rush to contain the global spread of the deadly coronavirus, of which 12 cases have been confirmed in Australia.

Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family, legal guardians and spouses will be excepted from the strict measures, announced by Scott Morrison on Saturday.

The government has also raised its advice level, warning travellers simply: “Do not go to China”.

Mr Dutton said new measures were having “an immediate impact” with overnight arrivals from China down from 5000 people to about 700 in Melbourne alone. In Brisbane the number was as low as 70 arrivals.

“The inbound numbers are down dramatically already and I suspect that will be the case ongoing. We’re prohibiting people boarding planes.”

Travel bans have increased exponentially, with Chinese carriers including China Southern, Hainan, Sichuan and Xiamen airlines cancelling virtually all flights into Australia overnight.

Qantas will continue to fly to Beijing and Shanghai until next Sunday in response to demand.

The Qantas booking site showed few seats available on those services with fares ranging from $755 for an economy seat to more than $8000 for business class.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the February 9 suspension date would be subject to daily review, and could be moved forward.

Australian Border Force commissioner Michael Outram said overnight 71 passengers in China were not allowed to board flights to Australia as a result of the government’s ban.

‘The economy is not the priority’

There are fears the coronavirus and the bushfire crisis will seriously harm the economy.

Mr Dutton told Sky News that the health and wellbeing of Australians had to come first.

“There is no question it will have an impact on the economy,” he said.

“We hope that China can contain the issue and move on from it quickly … we’re working from the education sector to look in ways we can (give) support.”

Medics have arrived at Christmas Island aboard an RAAF plane, effectively bringing a portable hospital to monitor and treat Australians from Wuhan.

Ausmat mission team leader Dan Holmes confirmed he and 22 other medical staff – including paediatricians – would be isolated inside the Christmas Island detention centre with an unknown number of Australians from the Chinese province where the Wuhan coronavirus took hold. Australians from Wuhan were expected in coming days.

On Saturday evening, South Australian authorities confirmed two cases of coronavirus in that state, a couple aged in their 60s, who have since been admitted to a public hospital.

The two new coronavirus cases, along with a fourth case in Victoria.

Chinese state media says 256 people have now died from the virus, with 12,040 cases now confirmed globally.