Gordon wrote on Aug 8
th, 2020 at 8:00am:
You're on drugs. Many Australians overseas had a hard time finding flights and they have a right to come home.
Firstly, I am not (and never have been in my entire life) on drugs. So, how about dropping the insults because you weaken your entire 'argument' when you resort to using insults like so many do here.
Secondly, yes, according to the law they do have a right to come 'home' and I'm sure they will all tell us loudly about their "rights" - even going so far as taking it to court, if necessary to defend their "rights",
public health emergency or not.
"I want this, I want that and I couldn't care less about anyone else".
How many times have we seen that lately with people rushing to cross State borders before closures and curfews, refusing to stay in home quarantine, etc.? Just saw it again yesterday with Queensland's border lockout of 3 other States.
And, I wonder how many of these so called returning 'Australians' are dual citizens who only want to call Australia home when it suits them? "The virus is running wild in our overseas 'second home' so let's go back to Australia where it is safe (until the virus is gone from where we came from then we'll go back)". Or so they think. I also suspect the airlines have been putting pressure on the Federal government to keep as many as their flights running as they can as well (those 'pesky' $$$$'s again!).
Too bad for everyone else here if they bring the virus back (as many of them already have) and it gets loose like it has in Victoria and then spreads to other States such as NSW and QLD (thanks to the abovementioned selfish 'border hoppers').
Quote:This has nothing to do with the Fed Gov because quarantine hotels worked everywhere except where Dan Dan Covid Man was in charge.
As I've said a few times already in other posts, if the Federal government had closed the borders
properly, in late March then there would be no need for any sort of quarantine, hotels or any other type.
If we can't stop all of these "returned travellers" then its about time they were quarantined somewhere away from the Australian mainland like Christmas Island until they're given the "all clear" but I'm sure most of them would complain about having to do that too.
Here in WA, we had people being quarantined on Rottnest Island just off the Perth coast. Don't know if that's still happening but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these "returned travellers" complained about that too and besides that the facilities at Rottnest were probably filled quickly and the State government had to start using hotels.
And, other States are no doubt becoming increasingly concerned about hotel quarantine. Here's an example from right here in WA:
Warning over WA coronavirus hotel quarantine 'time bomb' as staff say rules repeatedly brokenhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-23/wa-coronavirus-hotel-quarantine-major-bre... Quote:Serious concerns have emerged about Western Australia's handling of interstate and international arrivals, with repeated rule breaches and fears of an over-reliance on private security contractors within the state's hotel quarantine system.
Which has resulted in this (thank goodness Mark McGowan's not "asleep at the wheel"):
Defence personnel brought into coronavirus quarantine hotels in WA after alleged breacheshttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-24/defence-force-brought-into-wa-quarantine-... Quote:Defence Force personnel are set to be stationed in Perth quarantine hotels to assist with security arrangements, after whistleblowers flagged concerns about the handling of international and interstate arrivals.
Oh, and what do we have here?
Quote:Hotel staff members refusing to work out of fear.
Regular threats and abuse of staff members by quarantine guests.
Quote:In one instance, a person in quarantine was able to physically grab a hotel staff member who was not wearing any personal protective equipment.
Been quite a bit of abuse of hotel staff by these "returned travellers" in quarantine apparently which probably increased when they discovered they had to pay for the quarantine themselves (about time).
As our Premier, Mr. McGowan said recently - "If they don't like it then they shouldn't bother coming back to Australia".
Spot on, Mark.