Link: “Australians who live overseas now unable to leave country if they return for visit”
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Australian citizens abroad are denied the right to return home because of caps on quarantine places and airlines price-gouging and not respecting people’s confirmed bookings, but now, Australia wants to make the right to leave conditional, as well.
This “Fortress Australia” approach might be popular, but is such a hardship on Australians with international connections… and we are, after all, a country where half the population was either born overseas or has at least one parent who was. I think quarantine is a necessity, and we can look abroad to see what we’ve been spared thanks to it, but the system we have is so obviously a kludge and combine that with airlines prioritising wealthy celebrity passengers, many of whom aren’t even Australian, ahead of ordinary dual nationals or expats who just want to see their families…
Jessica Smith is a socialist and a feminist who loves animals, books, gaming, and cooking; she’s also interested in linguistics, history, technology and society.