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Around 20,000 international passengers will be bumped from flights and locked out of Western Australia as a result of Premier Mark McGowan’s decision to delay the state’s border reopening indefinitely, international airlines say.
McGowan had earlier promised to reopen the border on February 5 when the state’s fully vaccinated rate hit 90 per cent. This would have allowed fully vaccinated people to enter the state without quarantining.
That commitment saw tens of thousands of people locked out of their home state, some for more than two years rush to buy tickets.
Premier Mark McGowanCredit:Peter de Kruijff
But now airlines will have to bump or cancel those tickets because of Premier McGowan’s decision to keep the border closed until the triple-jabbed rate hits 80 per cent with the number of international arrivals capped at 265 per week.
Barry Abrams from the Board of Airline Representatives (BARA) said it should not fall to airlines to decide which lucky Australians will be able to enter the country and use the meagre 265 hotel quarantine spots available each week.
“All of these passengers will have legitimate reasons for returning, which generates considerable stress between them and international airline staff,” Abrams told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Closed to the outside world: Western Australia. Credit:iStock
“The Western Australian Government should accept accountability for the situation and obtain information about its stranded citizens.”
On Wednesday, the state’s Police Minister Paul Papalia suggested Australians arriving from overseas and given permission to enter the WA via the rest of the country, could undergo quarantine at home instead of in a hotel.
This would mean a person overseas wanting to get home via Sydney would likely need Western Australian approval, which Abrams said would be unworkable for airline staff to administer at check-in as had proven to be the case for other states when they had home quarantine.
“This situation is shaping up as chaotic for Western Australians overseas,” he said.
“How can an international passenger be deemed eligible for home quarantine if they fly to Perth via Sydney but not if they took a direct international flight into Perth?”
Abrams said it would take airlines 75 weeks to clear the backlog of passengers that had booked tickets in anticipation of the February 5 reopening.
Premier McGowan’s office was contacted for comment.
Professor Greg Dore, an infectious diseases expert at the Kirby Institute told this masthead that Western Australia’s indefinite border closure was futile, given the small outbreak of Omicron in Bunbury, which McGowan has conceded the government will not be able to contain.
“The current outbreak in Western Australia demonstrates the difficulties with maintenance of an elimination strategy,” Dore said. “It’s extremely unlikely that control will be maintained to allow 80 per cent booster coverage”.
“The continued stranding of many thousands of Australians overseas and interstate is an ongoing factor that needs to be considered in the overall public health response.”
“It’s time to revert to the previously proposed opening date of February 5,” he said.
Kim Brown gave birth, prematurely, to her daughter in March last year and is due to undergo surgery on February 9. Her parents and mother-in-law, all triple vaccinated, were due to arrive on February 7 to help the family as she recovered from her operation.
But having already missed the birth of their granddaughter, they also cannot now come because even in the unlikely event that they secured a seat, they would not be out of hotel quarantine in time for the surgery.
Families not holidays
“These weren’t just holiday plans,” she said. “These were grandparents meeting grandchildren for the first time, these were parents being present to support and help their children and their families.”
Perth mother Kim Brown with her daughter, who was born prematurely, pictured in Perth Children’s Hospital in May 2021.
“I am in pieces and emotionally spent having endured one of the toughest years of our life without our parents here to help and support us.”
“And now we have nothing – no plan, no date, no target – I see no light at the end of this tunnel.”
Rebecca (42), a Perth mother who lives in Canada for her husband’s job with their two sons, said her worst fears came true when she watched McGowan’s press conference in which he reneged on his promise to reunite the state with the rest of the country and the world.
“We haven’t booked anything, I want to see the first plane go off, the wheels reach the tarmac of the first plane before I book anything because it’s too hard for our boys,” she said.
“The idea of trying to explain to them that they’re going home and see nanna and grandpa and uncle and aunty and cousins and then to tell them can’t – it’d be too devastating for them to have that expectation and then it not happen.”
The family have not been home since the pandemic started because the costs of the flights and quarantine would be more than $20,000.
“It’s a small car worth of money, basically,” she said.
She said neither could do their work from hotel quarantine while locked up with their sons for 24 hours for 14 days and that it would take up half their annual leave.
She said her message to McGowan was simple: “Can we just have a goal that doesn’t move so that everyone knows what they’re working towards?”
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