Over the past week, South Australia and the Northern Territory have launched bonkers plans to fly in international students at the same time Australians interstate are precluded from entering and thousands of Australians are stuck abroad and unable to return home.
To add insult to injury, Federal Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Simon Birmingham, has thrown his support behind these plans:
“This is a very important next step in terms of the recovery from the economic disaster of COVID…
“International education is a huge services export industry for Australia…
“It underpins many thousands of jobs and it is important that we figure out how we can get international students back to Australia safely and appropriately…
“It’s being done with the absolute utmost of safety requirements in place”…
The Morrison Government, South Australia and the Northern Territory might want to reconsider their plans, given the latest Essential Poll shows that two-thirds of Australians support banning all international flights into Australia to curb COVID-19 transmission:
I would have thought that it’s a violation of international law to deny citizens the chance to return to their home country. Moreover, the whole point of being an Australian citizen is that you have a home to return to if needed.
But there is zero justification in flying in foreign students, especially when strict entry caps are precluding thousands of Australian citizens from coming home and many Aussies are banned from travelling interstate.
These plans are not only unfair, but also highly unpopular. Our policy-makers must reverse course.
