Canberra must face up to its responsibilities
We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
Dismiss
May 3, 2021 — 12.00am
Normal text size
Credit:
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number.
QUARANTINE AND THE TRAVEL BAN
Canberra must face up to its responsibilities
The Commonwealth government can’t ignore its duty to provide effective, purpose-built quarantine facilities throughout Australia (“Shifting pandemic politics brings PM to the table”,
The Age, 1/5).
Like national defence, quarantine is ultimately a Commonwealth responsibility. We face potential aggression from foreign countries as a nation, not as individual states and territories. Any proposal to fund separate armies, navies and air forces would be laughed at as ludicrous. Defence is up to the Commonwealth. Neither in a pandemic should the states and territories have to scrabble to find money for quarantine. COVID-19 has been a fact of life for more than a year now.