Australia is among the front-running nations for its protection of public health during the novel coronavirus pandemic, yet disproportionate travel restrictions that include caps on inbound flights and irresponsibly limited quarantine capacity have left tens of thousands of Australians stranded overseas. The success of comparable countries like New Zealand and Taiwan in containing the virus without barring the return of residents proves that it’s possible to protect the whole population without inflicting undue hardship.
Australia’s flight caps and quarantine places should have been doubled months ago, yet, in January 2021, almost a year into the pandemic, Australian state and federal governments announced that they will drastically reduce them. Already escalated beyond crisis point the backlog of stranded Aussies is set to increase thanks to the paranoia, incompetence and lack of political will shared by Australian governments.
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Esther Rockett 