Coronavirus: ‘We just want to be allowed to go home’, say Victorian family

Victoria has processed just a fraction of more than 11,000 border exemption applications, leaving thousands in limbo.

Nathan Costin with his wife Jennifer, and their three children Benedict, 4, David, 2, and John Henry, eight months, have been living a nightmare. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services has processed just a fraction of more than 11,000 border exemption applications, forcing thousands of desperate Victorians to continue to live in limbo far from home — a fortnight after the Andrews government closed the NSW border, and almost a week after Brisbane was a declared a coronavirus “red zone”.

DHHS revealed late on Wednesday that of 11,095 exemption applications submitted since January 1 from people needing to travel to Victoria from NSW and Queensland “red zones”, only 1320 had been granted, four rejected, and 1200 closed off as a result of regional NSW being reclassified to an “amber” zone, enabling them to travel.

The Costin family's holiday hiccups

Anyone wanting to enter Victoria who has spent any time in Greater Sydney or Greater Brisbane in the past 14 days requires an exemption, leaving many stranded with maxed-out credit cards, exhausted leave entitlements and overstayed welcomes with friends and family.

Melbourne couple Nathan and Jennifer Costin and their three young sons are among 5000 applicants who are trying to get to Victoria after spending time in Queensland’s red zone.

The couple and their sons Benedict, 4, David, 2, and John Henry, eight months, set out from their home in Croydon, in Melbourne’s east, on December 28 on an end-of-year holiday to visit friends and family in Brisbane.

Having originally planned to take the most direct route, skirting Sydney, the Costins opted to go ­inland through what was then a coronavirus “green zone”, staying overnight in Parkes and Moree and arriving in Brisbane on ­December 30.

When the Andrews government announced the following day that they were closing the Victorian border at midnight on New Year’s Day, the Costins baulked at the prospect of a 19-hour car trip and two weeks of home quarantine, and opted to stay in Queensland until they could secure exemption.

On New Year’s Day, they made the first of what have become daily calls to DHHS, undergoing a phone interview two days later to apply for an exemption, before relocating to the Gold Coast on January 6 so as not to overstay their welcome with the friends in Brisbane.

But on January 7, a COVID-19 case in a cleaner at a Brisbane hotel prompted the Andrews government to reclassify the city as a “red zone”, leaving them stranded for at least another 13 days without an exemption.

By Wednesday, the situation had become desperate, with Mr Costin having almost exhausted his leave entitlements and the family having spent more than $2000 on accommodation for which they had not budgeted, with no indication from DHHS as to when — or whether — their exemption would be granted, other than repeated assurances that it had been “escalated”.

“They keep asking why we need to go home. I tell them, ‘It’s our home. The kids are exhausted and so are we and I need to go back to work’, and no matter what I say, they ask if there are any other ­reasons,” Mr Costin said. “We have done everything asked of us with still no action.”

The family drove south on Wednesday, intending to spend a night in Goondiwindi, in the hope they will have received an exemption by the time they get to Albury, on the NSW side of the border.