Troo believer, for once I agree with you!!
Australia has truly lost its way with the various restrictions in place for quarantine. I can’t comment on the rules for Oz based flight crew, but I can certainly tell you that what arriving crew experience is also following the same inane path.
I’ll add my experience though from the last 12 months in the UAE.
We started with 14 day home quarantine after every flight or until your next duty. For those is us that continued flying, that meant a continuous quarantine period that lasted around 3 months until the rules changed. During this time if you were unlucky enough to be on a flight with a confirmed case, you were removed from duty for 14 days and also required to take a PCR test at the end. We were also given a PCR test at the end of every duty.
Approximately 3 months in the rules changed and the PCR test on arrival was dropped. The home quarantine requirement was also removed. For the “confirmed case on board”, we still had to isolate for 14 days, however the PCR test at the end was removed.
Sometime around October the “confirmed case on board” rules changed again. Now we were notified but only required to monitor for symptoms.
Throughout this time restrictions on layovers have been in place. Most destinations we are not allowed to leave the hotel. However in your case, if you believe 100% of QF/ANZ crew follow this on every layover, I have a bridge to sell you..... If restrictive rules exist, I guarantee you someone isn’t following them.
We also had requirements for PPE since March last year, including on layovers.
To be honest, I’ve been quite happy with the progression of the various rules here. Things have changed regularly but appear to be based on new information or actual available data. Unlike some of the pedantic BS in Australia. Plus this country is actually able to figure out how to administer a vaccine, so almost all crew are vaccinated (plus a significant portion of society and airline families).
Just to add, the rule changes at the beginning of 2021 for international crew on layovers, are another example of what you speak about. Please tell me what benefit there is in testing crew on a 24 hour layover??? Especially when the results can take 24-48 hours to come back. There has been flight crew ON THE AIRCRAFT, about to board passengers, that then receive a positive result. The threat is almost 99% guaranteed to be asymptomatic and is ABOUT TO LEAVE AUSTRALIA!!! But the rules require all the crew to leave the aircraft and undergo 14 days quarantine in Australia.
All I can really say is HAHAHAHA and good luck. And I’m Australian!!