Government defends new arrivals card process amid claim people are ‘slipping the net’

There are calls to extend the two-week self-isolation requirements to all people arriving in Tasmania.

THE arrivals card being handed to people entering Tasmania after overseas travel isn’t going to protect the state from importing more cases of coronavirus, the opposition parties say.

Labor, the Greens and independent MP Madeleine Ogilvie want two-week self-isolation requirements extended to all people arriving in Tasmania — something the Government emphatically ruled out on Wednesday.

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Labor leader Rebecca White said the card — available in both paper and electronic forms — was useless if it wasn’t given to every person arriving into the state.

“We’ve already heard stories of people who haven’t self-reported or haven’t understood what’s required of them coming into Tasmania,” she said.

“The Government should immediately act to make sure that anybody arriving into Tasmania is required to fill out an arrivals card, irrespective of whether they’ve travelled from overseas.

“We’ve seen an escalation in cases from New South Wales and Victoria now, and a number of people are travelling from those states to Tasmania.

“They are as great a risk to the Tasmanian population as anybody who’s travelling from overseas.”

A passenger fills out an arrival card at Hobart Airport on Wednesday. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

Premier Peter Gutwein defended the rollout of the card, saying his Government has gone further than any other state to keep its residents safe.

“There are penalties involved for people travelling from overseas or Tasmanians returning home who do not fill out that card at our ports,” he said.

“More than 100 people have already filled out that card in the last couple of days, which indicates a significant number, I suspect, of Tasmanians coming back from overseas as opposed to international travellers. We are ensuring that they know what their obligations and responsibilities are. We have taken that step and no other state or territory has.”

Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff said there were suggestions some people were slipping through the net.

“We were contacted by somebody who arrived last night from overseas and they were handed a Tasmanian arrivals card but there was no support or direction about how to fill it in,” she said.

“That person reported that another passenger pushed past with, obviously, duty free bags, and they’ve clearly been overseas in that person’s view,” she said.