There was NO ban on people coming from India. There was a ban on flights from India. If you left India and quarantined in a third country for 14 days you could then enter Australia, as the cricketers did.
The ban also had a cutoff date.
The penalty for breaching a direction under the bio-security act has been there since 2011.
No ban?? How do you explain the PM clearly threatening jail time for arriving citizens that been in India in the last 14 days?
That my friend is a ban. Jail time for citizens was also a threat NO OTHER country made against its own citizens.
Not everyone has the cash to stay in a tropical resort for 14 days. On top of this, would you believe a large majority of countries have restrictions on non-citizens entering their country? This means there’s only a handful of choices to spend your 14 days waiting to avoid jail. Plus on top of this you’d probably need an extra flight to get there. AND be at the mercy of short notice restrictions being applied while you are in transit. Risking you being stranded. Again.
I don’t care if it had a cutoff date, it should have never been applied in the first place.