Around 600 Aussies have been stranded in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province ever since the coronavirus broke out. Needless to say that those Aussies aren’t particularly keen on staying in the epicentre of this disease outbreak and Australia has put together a plan to get those 600 people back to Australia.
However, there’s a catch to this plan: the coronavirus evacuees will be sent to Christmas Island first and be asked to pay for the cost of their own evacuation.
In a press conference, Scott Morrison announced that the “isolated and vulnerable Australians” who are caught up in the coronavirus outbreak will be sent to Christmas Island, where they will be kept in quarantine for up to 14 days, which is the recognised incubation period for the disease.
Morrison made sure to stress that the plan will prioritise Aussies who were short-term visitors to the Hubei province and who don’t have family there rather than those who lived there or have been there for ages, as well as a “limited window” to get foreign nationals out.
This plan has understandably not gone down well with Christmas Island locals, who aren’t exactly keen on hundreds of people exposed to the coronavirus being suddenly left on their door step.
While it is a biosecurity risk to bring those exposed to the coronavirus back to the Australian mainland, putting people in a detention centre some 1,650km away that doesn’t have appropriate medical care isn’t exactly a great look either.
Furthermore, the Morrison government’s quarantine plan isn’t going to come cheap for the evacuees. According to a statement (via The Guardian), the coronavirus evacuees will “be required to commit to making a contribution to the cost, consistent with normal arrangements in these circumstances.”
Now I didn’t think it’s protocol to charge people for their own evacuation, nor is the coronavirus “a normal arrangement in these circumstances,” but hey, I’m not an expert on quarantine costs, the law or anything in that realm.
A quick look at the Biosecurity Act 2015 suggests that the Morrison government will look to use the “Miscellaneous fees” provisions to justify the billing of coronavirus evacuees for their Christmas Island stay but again, who knows at this point. All I know is that I’ve never heard of the government charging anyone for their own evacuation.
For what it’s worth, New Zealand are also working with Australia on evacuating their own citizens out of China (via The Guardian) but their plan doesn’t involve putting those exposed to the coronavirus in a detention centre, nor is there any mention of charging them a fee for getting them home.
With all the panic that’s going on in regards to the coronavirus, which has caused racism and fake information to spike, it seems like money still talks at the end of the day and someone has to foot the bill as evacuations aren’t cheap.
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