But belated political nuances cannot compete with a more general image of a government bluntly threatening its own stranded, vulnerable citizens, and the politically corrosive argument that this unfairly highlights the Indian community of Australia. He must try to somehow reassure India and a 700,000 Indian-Australian community that none of this is discriminatory.
It’s not just ex-Test cricketer Michael Slater who unleashes the Morrison government when the cricket commentator fled to the Maldives to escape the Indian Premier League’s immersion in India’s COVID-19 crisis. Once cricketers are involved in this disaster, community attention in both countries will always go beyond the usual style of political damage control. Then add the emotional stories of the fear of thousands of Australian-Indian families desperately trying to get their parents or children to safety.
What happened also draws attention to the failure of the Morrison administration to act quickly enough to significantly increase capacity at Howard Springs, near Darwin.
Many other governments, of course, including UK and USA, hIn response to the COVID-19 disaster, ave also blocked flights from India – although most have not banned their own citizens from returning. Last month, New Zealand’s Ardern government temporarily refused to admit New Zealand citizens from India before lifting the ban after two weeks. But the move did not arouse the same anger, presumably because New Zealand did not simultaneously bring the notion of punishment to jail.
Federal Labor is dancing around its approach and has also supported the ban on flights from India. It is now more focused on the government’s clumsy threats of jails and fines, as well as the risk of undermining its relations with India at a time of regional political tension with China.
What happened also draws attention to the Morrison administration’s failure to act quickly enough to significantly increase capacity at Howard Springs, near Darwin, to accommodate more return flights, including addressing the prospect of a rising percentage of COVID -19 infected travelers.
The arrival restrictions of the states swell the backlog
Howard Springs is the only quarantine facility that controls the Commonwealth, and almost coincidentally, its low, cabin-like origins as a warehouse for resource workers provide the best architectural style for combating the potential airborne spread of the virus. The expansion from a capacity of 850 to 2000 returning travelers will not be ready until this month, despite a long lead time.
As Morrison repeatedly notes, the hotel quarantine system has brought back 99.99 percent of 500,000 people with just a tiny number of violations, resulting in occasional outbreaks of infection in the community – most catastrophic in Victoria.
It is also true that a year ago prime ministers insisted on overseeing their own quarantine hotel systems with limited federal support. Few Prime Ministers have hesitated to regularly slam their own borders on all Australian citizens from other states. All state governments except NSW had already blocked direct commercial flights from India.
Indeed, the States strict caps on weekly overseas arrivals are the main reason behind the backlog of Australians stranded offshore or forced to pay exorbitant business class fares to ensure they don’t get bumped off nearly empty flights. State government failure to guarantee adequate hotel ventilation systems and protective equipment is also the main culprit for the rare violations that have occurred.
But India’s high infection rate has meant that one in eight recently returning travelers on return flights to Howard Springs has COVID-19, which appears to be weighing on the ability of the medical system there to handle additional cases.
According to Paul Kelly, chief medical officer, this would have exceeded the agreed goal of keeping the active infection rate of people in Australian quarantine at 2 percent.
The Prime Minister is now stressing that the temporary hiatus on all flights from India, due to be reviewed on May 15, will in fact allow more Australians to return safely, including from India. The commitment is to use the two weeks to improve the facility’s capacity to deal with the higher rate of infection seen among returning travelers.
Morrison also suddenly welcomed the Victorian government’s proposal to build one more dedicated quarantine facility north of Melbourne. He praises it as a far more detailed plan than an alternative proposal from Queensland, though Victoria claims the Commonwealth should pay almost all of $ 700 million.
“We cannot be complacent in this country,” he said. Inclusion in the policy of the pandemic.
