GETTING HOME – ONLY IF THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO

For months now, the mathematics of getting stranded Australians home have been forwarded to the PM and other politicians, just to be ignored as an irrelevance. The figures show that it could take years for these folk to get home if nothing different is done.

Even with the solutions like an extra 20 'embassy' flights over two months, not just as a one-off, it will take until May 22 for folk to get back if the numbers do not increase: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-mathematics-of-stranded-numbers.html  As the numbers have only ever increased, one could suggest that some stranded Australians will not get home until 2023 unless circumstances change.

Still the government does nothing, implementing the stonewall response the PM gave, and still gives to asylum seekers. Does he forget that these stranded folk are Australian citizens? It seems that allowing citizens to come home is a very basic right. One just has to have the desire for this to occur. Our government appears to be interested only in the politics of the situation, making sure it is ‘safe,’ and seen to be looking after the majority that will have a say in the next election.

The logic here is askew. Politicians always say that they will govern for all, even those who did not vote for them; but this is usually said in the happy, hyped aftermath of an election win. The strategy of only looking after the many because of some potentially onerous imposition likely when attending to the few, is a dangerous and flawed proposition. One could see how unacceptable this position would be when applied to: the critically ill; to those with a disability; to the cultural minorities; and similar groups that make demands for the few. Just imagine if the response to floods, fire, and cyclones was: “Tough; this is your lot; wear it. You should’ve been better prepared. It’s the Aussie way.”

Leaving citizens at the mercy of political spin, some 40,000 or so, is cynical and careless. There is the lingering idea that these folk should have done what they were told, and come home earlier; and being overseas leaves them in a ‘privileged’ position, so why complain? - such is the Aussie mind, where anything/anyone from overseas is better than things/people Australian, like pop stars and tennis players who are welcomed into the country.

But getting folk home is not impossibly difficult; one only needs to want to. There is a surplus of aeroplanes, and a surplus of hotel rooms;# and there are other quarantine options too, like home, mining towns, and similar centres. The Wagner family of Toowoomba has offered to build a 1000 room centre in 4 to 5 weeks. The irony here is that it will take the government months to think about this proposal.

The whole organisation needs to be taken on by the Federal government, not left for the states to squabble over. Once the desire is there, and discussions with airlines have been finalised, and quarantine options clarified, which should not take long - all of those involved have an expertise in handling numbers effectively and efficiently - Australia could start getting its citizens home.

Wagner's proposal would see a cycle of 1000 citizens arriving every two weeks, but it may not be required. All that is needed is, say, 100 hotels taking 400 citizens each, to get 40,000 home without thinking about other options. Home quarantine is the most humane solution, but we have a convict mentality that still seems to linger in those in power: quarantine must be policed.

Only the flights have to be worked out. With, say, 200 per flight, 200 flights will be needed. Spread over, say, 5 major centres, with a modest four flights a day each, getting folk home will take 10 days. It is hardly Dunkirk!*

The hotel quarantine capacity is there now, ready to take everyone at once, so the 14-day cycle is no hindrance. In less than a month, everyone will be through quarantine and home. It is not difficult. It is just that the government does not care; that it seems more interested in its risk-free, re-election strategy; in not stirring the waters or tempting a hiccup. Where is the problem here if one has faith in the quarantine process?

It is truly unforgivable that any democratically elected government could do this to its people. It is an attitude that we see from dictators. Is Australia so careless, so lacking in solutions, in ideas, in courage and determination, that it leaves folk stranded, to their own devices; at the mercy of the new ‘people smugglers,’ the airlines, that have been put into this terrible situation by the government’s policy? We have seen in the past, and even today, that the government will not support stranded Australians: just ask David Hicks, and Julian Assange.

On ya Aussie! Ya should be ashamed.

#

According to data from the UNWTO, there were a total of 284,680 hotel rooms in Australia in 2018. The number of hotels in the country has been increasing year on year since 2007.

*

P.S.

Now some might say that this plan is too ambitious. Already the PM has come out against changes to quarantine options, quoting medical advice: it is always difficult to argue against such information, so it seems we are to be stuck with this problematical system.

On the problems of hotel quarantine see:

https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2021/01/quarantine-air.html

https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-quarantine-room-analysis.html

https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2021/01/quarantine-cuisine-photographic-diary.html

One could say, go slower; try 2 flights a day into five centres: this will take twenty days to get everyone home. Might this too be too big a step? Then try one a day, carrying 200 people into five centres – this will take forty days. It just requires the desire to achieve an outcome and the will to implement a coherent and realistic strategy.

The point is that the government has no plan to get these folk home; it has no idea whatever; just nothing. All it produces are marketing grabs in the hope that these will sound good, distract and confuse. One might have respect for the government if it even tried to do something, but all we get is blurb and excuses as to why anything might be impossible. It is a true insult to those left to their own devices.

Everyone is getting sick of the COVID excuses; we need action; solutions. The government has noted how vaccinating the population is just a matter of logistics, albeit it a ‘huge logistical challenge’; so is getting Australians home: see – http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-05/when-will-you-get-the-covid-19-vaccine/13112610: one just has to want to.

NOTE

 5 February 21

In response to the government's announcement later in the day:

Ho! Ho! Ho! One might as well believe in Santa Claus: the government has considered the issue of the stranded Australians – it really cares. It has reinstated the old limits to help everyone get back. These are the same limits as those that proved useless in the past, yet the media reports the change as a transformation, a great step forward: see The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/feb/05/scott-morrison-announces-increase-to-international-flight-caps-video?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

This is pure marketing nonsense. One only has to look at the mathematics: with 6,300 people being allowed into the country every week; and with 20 ‘embassy’ flights announced for the two months, February and March, the figures are:

in the next two months, if the only people entering Australia are those who are ‘stranded,’ then, with the ‘embassy’ numbers not counting in the weekly limit, 55,120 people will supposedly get into the country. This should mean that everyone left stranded overseas will be home: Yippee!

The problem is that, with the previous 6,300 per week figure, the numbers left stranded only ever increased. This is all a part of the muddling of numbers that the government engages in. What is really going on? What with politicians ignoring everyone, and the media doing likewise, what chance is there for the facts to get out? We only get the spin.

Who believes that everyone will be back within two months? The government has always fiddled with the calculations, knowing, but not telling; pretending that the totals show success when the failure remains obvious in the static total of those stranded – near 40,000. It has been at this level now for about three months.

Can the government provide us with its plan to prove that everyone can get back, and give us the time scale for this programme, rather than sitting with its fingers crossed hoping matters will go away? We have seen nothing yet but smart, slick statements, the snappy closing of the folder, and the smug walking away from the questions. If there is a definitive plan, then tell us. If not, then have the guts to be honest and tell those stranded that they will have to wait months and months before they can get back; that the government does not care. Headlines like those in The Guardian only perpetuate the myth that the government is solving the problem.

That the government does not care is advice that we were given by the High Commission, and on which we acted: we got back.

P.S.

The communication above was sent as a link to a blog so that the numbers could be observed. Might anyone even bother to look? It seems that three have flicked on to the site, (who might this be?), but have not bothered to look into the links that address quarantine conditions in detail – air, room, and meals. These matters are just ignored while the experience of hotel quarantine is promoted as ‘first class’ by the Federal Health Officer. We have experienced it; it is certainly not classy or healthy: it is more like crude, careless incarceration. We have challenged the Queensland Premier and her Chief Health Officer to live on the food they gave us for two weeks. We do not expect a response as other communications have just been ignored too.

Now we challenge all politicians and their health experts to experience the total package – the air, the room, and the food for fourteen days - and then let us know if they think it first class. One wonders what second class might be like if this is tops! Just spruiking words is not enough; the whole idea of hotel quarantine needs to be reconsidered: it is inappropriate. Matters like this should not be flogged using marketing techniques; people are involved. Just look at the details, and wonder why anyone should put up with this rude imposition.

The simple point is that if 6,300 people a week is sufficient to manage the situation, then why are the rescue flights needed?

 6 FEBRUARY 2021

P.P.S.

Now we are getting the reports on the problems with hotel quarantine infections. One need not waste the time or the money; just look at the blog on quarantine air and realise how problematical the containment of the virus is in circumstances designed for part-time leisure and recreation. The concept of ‘deep cleaning’ a completely sealed environment with the notorious attention hotel cleaners give to their tasks, is a farce when surfaces hold the fibres pumped through from the air conditioning systems along the edges and ledges: each particle could be Covid infected.

One can only assume that the government does not want to hear anything about the failure of the hotel quarantine system, because it has backed it. One can only be worried about health outcomes with such an attitude. The government does not want a rigorous report; just something to let things go on as they are.