Originally Posted by
aviation_enthus
NZ has a booking system for your place in quarantine. It’s up to the traveller to ensure they have a booking first, then they can get on ANY flight available to get them to NZ.
This is a massive difference to the AUS system where the government “palms off” the decisions to the airlines. Also means if your specific airline makes a schedule change, you can’t just rebook a new flight with another airline that’ll probably still arrive on the same day.
So that justifies screwing over your own citizens?? As others have mentioned arrivals pay for the flights, they pay for the quarantine. And then after all this they still get blamed for...
“not coming home in March”
Citizens first, that’s the entire point of government. To serve the people that put them in power. That includes Australians stuck on the “wrong” side of the international border. Citizenship doesn’t end when you step off Australian soil
My comment regarding the governments involvement - they view the high value visitors, media exposure and tax revenue ahead of locals; maybe you misinterpreted my comments as supporting some of the decisions made on either side of the Tasman.
BTW, I didn't know that Australia did not have a system for pre-booking quarantine.
Returning Kiwi's can get the quarantine for free as long as they are intending to stay, and haven't just left for a holiday; that said, my neighbour works for an Australian professional cycling team. He had to travel to Spain and Italy, as he was working on both tours. Even though that is his income for the year, he still had to pay $3000 for the privilege of going to work.