bensyd

The CMO said last week he did not expect the border to reopen as it was pre-Covid until there is a vaccine. Qantas is not restarting international flights until July 2021.

angra

Thank you the links are helpful. I fully support Australia making decisions in its own national interest. I have seen the official pages, but the news stories are particularly helpful, as I would expect the government to be more reluctant to make forward-looking predictions.

Emily Brett

Now to see what happens in Victoria!

bensyd

Gladys has flagged the idea of NSW residents returning from Victoria facing mandatory 14 day hotel quarantine and being required to foot the bill. If that happens for domestic arrivals I would assume that it will be implemented for international arrivals.

Mwenenzi

National Cabinet decides to restrict international arrivals by half in bid to contain coronavirus spread
International flights cut by half as travellers forced to pay for quarantine

3544quebec

I returned to Australia on March 25th after an ill-fated roundtrip to the States which lasted 5 days instead of the planned 3 months.
The 14 day mandatory quarantine was in place but it was still the short period where it was up to the passenger to arrange their quarantine. The government arranged/imposed/paid 2 week hotel quarantine was not in place.

I paid $1300 for 2 weeks accommodation in a 1 bedroom apartment in central Brisbane. It was an upscale apartment with great view from on high of the Brisbane River (not Sydney Harbour I know but you take what you can)

During my 2 weeks I was not contacted once to check whether at that instant I was complying with the mandatory self-quarantine.

As with most things Government-related, policy was imposed but implementation of the policy was ignored. When I arrived at the apartment from the airport I logged onto Coles and Woolworths online and found out that delivery of groceries was going to take 3-4 days. There was an option to register as a needy person which included the elderly/disabled and people under mandatory quarantine. This would ensure expedited delivery but on filling in the application for this the supermarket would get back to you in 48hrs to confirm your status. So you had to fast for 2-3 days before you could get any grocery delivery (probably wouldn't do me great harm actually).

So to actually get food I had to break quarantine for 1 hour at the beginning of my stay to go to the supermarket.

So I spent $1300 on accommodation in an apartment with full cooking/laundry facilities and perhaps $250 on food. Compared to the $3000 that the NSW government is going to charge for accommodation/food in a hotel room, I know which I would prefer.

I would even prefer an option of wearing an ankle bracelet to ensure compliance and even paying the cost of that rather than paying $3000 to stay in a hotel room especially when I am not earning points. If I am going to spend 14 nights and $3000 for government quarantine I want to earn at least 1 nights free quarantine for a time of my choosing - preferably with a welcome drink.

bensyd

The obvious problem with the ankle bracelet idea is people in quarantine can still get their mates around for beers, or a rogue security guard for a late night booty call.

The self-quarantine system had pretty poor compliance. I think I saw stats that said it had 50%-60% compliance.

OTOH, it would make sense to maybe have a mix of hotel and non-hotel quarantine depending on which country you have arrived from. Passengers arriving from most countries in East Asia are very low risk so could isolate at home. Whereas passengers from the sub-Continent, USA, Latin America etc would need to do hotel quarantine.

3544quebec

You must have a naturally criminal mind - I didn't contemplate that myself. How about an ankle bracelet and a chastity belt?

bensyd

Haha!

Give Peter Dutton the key.

3544quebec

Peter Dutton with the key to my chastity belt That is the stuff of nightmares

DELee

Or, if they can't afford that and the 14 days, drop them in the Outback ala one of those survival shows...if they last 14 days, they're good. That way, they do their quarantine and get to see some of OZ at the same time...

David

DELee

Yes, but who else would you trust that actually knows what to do with such a key...?

(and, yes, there's probably an interesting limerick there...)

David

3544quebec

He may know what to do but I don't want him doing it.

bensyd

Ha!

Smiley90

My friend is in the not-enviable position of having a post-doc she was supposed to start... now, but can't fly because the border is closed. If she doesn't get there by the end of the year, she'll lose her offer. She's currently working on trying for a travel exemption, but she told me that even if she gets it, only the first 50 people off a plane are allowed to enter the country, with preference given to First/Business class passengers, is that true? Is an approved exemption really the only way she could possibly get to Australia before the end of the year/ASAP? Canadian citizen.