Covid-19: We’ve become a nation of bad sports in the eyes of the world

Pit lane after the cancellation of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in March 2020. Picture: AAP

Australia may be slowly opening up to the rest of the world but it is still throwing up barriers.

There are three looming major international sporting events – the Ashes, the Australian Open and the 2022 Formula One Grand Prix – which could trumpet to the world that Australia is not really as nasty to those from overseas, and even its own expats, as the global headlines have screamed.

But the initial response has been far from encouraging.

Why are people arriving in Australia – double vaccinated and armed with the freshest of Covid-tests – to be treated differently compared with Australians who are double vaccinated?

Queensland has just announced differing quarantine standards for overseas arrivals when it eventually opens its borders with 80 per cent vaccination rates; South Australia has already inflicted month-long quarantine on returning Tokyo Olympic ­athletes, despite them having had daily tests for weeks.

Who knows what Victoria, the ACT and Western Australia will do in the coming weeks? Even expats, let alone potential visitors, are so confused and mistrustful of the actions of the various Australian governments – state and federal – that many are holding off booking flights to Australia until there are clear signs that they will be welcome.

It is baffling that Australians still think Britain and Europe are dealing with the plague, when the reality is life here has gone back to near-normal.

Australia’s insularity began at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis when the national borders were slammed shut and expat Australians who outlaid house-sized deposits to be bumped off repeated flights were treated merely as potential disease carriers to be slammed into inadequate hotel rooms, some not even with an open window.

It was hoped that the cruel consequences – Australians threatened with jail for wanting to enter the country was a low point – had been relegated to the distant past.

But it has now got to a point where Australia’s Tourism Minister, Dan Tehan, has called on Cricket Australia to ensure international journalists can arrive in Australia to cover the Ashes ­series, after the sporting body ­restricted the numbers of British writers to just 13 spots.

This comes as Tennis Australia, organiser of the Australian Open, told media outlets they have to pay as much as $10,000 for each overseas journalist to attend the tournament this coming January. Under current plans, the tennis writers must arrive into Melbourne on a one-way charter flight, be subject to two weeks’ quarantine in a “bio-bubble’’ and then pay for their own return fare.

Where several hundred international writers might normally cover the tennis grand slam event, the 2022 edition will struggle to get into double figures.

As for the F1, officials are keeping a nervous watching brief about the Victorian restrictions for their event next April. The limited numbers are also affecting sponsors, broadcasters, and the size of entourages.

Tehan, whose other portfolio is trade, has been promoting unrestricted global trade, and has been hopeful tourism will bounce back once barriers are removed. He was surprised to hear of the reduced invitations to ­attend Australia’s international sporting events. To obtain a $315 temporary business visa in order to work in Australia, applicants require such an invitation letter from Cricket Australia or Tennis Australia.

“I would love to see as many journalists as possible from Britain come (to Australia) so they could report on Australian victories in the Ashes,” Tehan said.

“So I am sure Cricket Australia is working as hard as they can to make sure as many journalists can come, and if they need any assistance or any help in that regard, I’d be glad to give it to them so we can make sure those reports fly back to all and to as many news media outlets as possible.”

Yet the Australian Open organisers have written to media outlets saying “the Australian gov­ernment has again capped the total number of people who can enter Australia for the 2022 AO Summer, so places will be limited, and we cannot guarantee exemptions and visas”.

The Australian has seen the letter, which states: “At this stage the approximate cost of the charter flight into Australia, and the two weeks of pre-AO bubble ­accommodation, is likely to be around $8000 to $10,000.

“Once out of the two weeks of bubble accommodation, you would be free to make your own arrangements, and also manage your own return flight.”

It is understood that even with Victorian and Australian government rules relaxing in the coming weeks, Tennis Australia wants to flirt with a bio-bubble to protect the tournament from any Covid outbreak.

In cricket, differing state quarantine requirements are creating havoc to pin down a workable schedule, let alone how many ­people will fit into a press box under indoor ratio rules.

Many Australians respond to external criticism with predictable mantras. “Shutting the borders keeps us safe.” Or “the UK has had 136,000 more deaths than us’’ without considering Australia’s geographical and density-of-­living advantages. Nor acknowledging it has been because of UK and German vaccines that Australia’s re-opening is occurring.

Instead of perpetuating Australia’s reputation as Robocop-style dystopia, wouldn’t it be better to put out the welcome mat for everyone to enjoy the sporting summer?