WA Premier Mark McGowan has taken fresh aim at the Federal Government, saying it should not be allowing Australians to leave the country, even for family tragedies like funerals.
While leaving for a wedding specifically is not allowed amid the nation’s ongoing travel ban, Australians can get an exemption to leave for three months or more for a “compelling reason”.
“I’d just urge the Commonwealth to stop letting people leave this country to go to weddings or other things overseas,” he said.
“People are going overseas, just so you know.
“I’ve had multiple occasions of this reported to me, people going overseas to play at sporting events, they have been leaving here to go and study, they have been going to funerals and they have been going to weddings.
“Now, they are not essential. You can study here, you can get married here, Australians here are missing funerals.
“They are non-essential and we need to stop this sort of international travel for those sorts of purposes.”
Mr McGowan has also blasted hotel quarantine, after the man who had been to India was diagnosed with the virus after leaving hotel quarantine, where he had tested negative.
Throughout the pandemic, the Federal Government has delegated the hotel quarantine system to state leaders with some oversight from National Cabinet.
Mr McGowan has at multiple times taken aim at the Commonwealth government over its outsourcing of the system.
“There are a number of Commonwealth facilities that would be more suitable for quarantine purposes,” he said.
He said hotels, which are being used in all state capitals except for Howard Springs, mining camp in Darwin, were never built for the purpose.
But Health Minister, Greg Hunt, said “My view is we have the best quarantine system or at the very least the equal of the best of any in the world.”
NSW has taken the most of any state.
What are international travel rules?
Citizens and permanent residents have been locked in Australia since borders closed in 2020, in some of the toughest rules in the world.
The nation’s strict flight caps per week means planes are travelling almost empty, but getting on a flight without having a ticket cancelled by the airline is difficult, and can be expensive.
There’s also the mandatory, 14-day hotel quarantine, which costs around $3000 per person, or $5000 for a family.
This content first appear on 9news