Originally Posted by
KRviator
Spoken like someone who expects a handout when things go to shyte. I'd love the Government to show me the same support you expect them to show someone stuck overseas - because so far, I have received exactly $0.00 from CenterLink / JobKeeper / JobSeeker / 'the Government' in support, be it financial or otherwise, despite looking at a 6-figure financial loss due to this. I don't think I am alone in that either...
At the start of the pandemic, we were told there were approximately 30,000-odd Australians registered with DFAT who wanted to come home. Since then, thousands have left and returned, a few multiple times over, and we are still at or above, that original figure.
Australia has done pretty well in terms of Covid cases, though no doubt it is due to paranoid state leaders raising the drawbridge themselves when there's a sniffle somewhere, but I don't see you arguing against that mentality to allow the hundreds of thousands of Australian's who are already in Australia their "right to travel" (or rather, their constitutionally-protected right to not be penalised based on the state in which they live) vs the comparatively few stuck overseas their "right to return home".
The rights of 26,000,000 Australian's to travel freely within their own country without the border bollocks - or simply to their place of employment outweigh the desire of a few to come home. I'll be quite frank, were I PM, there wouldn't be any international arrivals until Australia had reached either herd immunity, or the vaccination target. Whether it is international flightcrew passing it on to their transport/hotel workers, or HQ leaks - and I do agree with you that that system is an abortion - from returning passengers have cost this country tens of billions of dollars. IIRC, the ABC quoted the last Victorian lockdown at $125M per day, the current Sydney one, $140M per day!
Reckon that is truly worth the cost of bringing a few thousand 'stranded' citizens home? I don't think it is...
And with an attitude like that, you shouldn’t be entitled to any taxpayer money even if you needed it!!
I’m glad to see there is a growing number of people on this forum who are finally realising what a farce our current border policy is. It’s good to see people like you becoming the minority.
The “rights of 26 million Australians” are not dependent on your location. Just like “Queensland hospitals for Queenslanders” was abhorrent, so is the idea that somehow you aren’t “Australian” once you leave our shores.
To be clear, “rights” don’t include a handout. Seeing as you are so concerned about precious taxpayer dollars I thought it important to make this CLEAR. “Rights” include something as simple as being able to get home, something that doesn’t actually cost the government anything, seeing as quarantine is user pays and all that…. And I pay for my own ticket... And I pay for the PCR test on departure…
Where does taxpayer money come into that other than getting in my way??
Guess what?! Home quarantine would be even cheaper for the government, probably require far less staff given the high tech monitoring options available (bracelets).
And the
staggering part?? Returning Australians are probably
more likely to be vaccinated than plebs like you. Wife and I got ours back in March, did Australia even have the Pfizer then?? 😂
I certainly hope you NEVER become PM.