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Facing claims the ban on Australian citizens and permanent residents returning from India was motivated by racism, the Prime Minister said the two-week restrictions established under federal biosecurity laws would be reviewed regularly.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly and Prime Minister Scott Morrison explained the ban on Monday.Â
Alex Ellinghausen
Health authorities said the ban â which includes potential penalties of as much as $66,000 in fines and five years in jail â was necessary to prevent new community spread, as India recorded more than 368,000 new cases on Monday.
Struggling under the weight of about 3.5 million active cases as the nationâs total caseload for the pandemic nears 20 million, hospitalsâ supplies and oxygen are in extreme demand and vaccine stocks are being exhausted in the worldâs second-most populous nation.
That is already happening.
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The alternative quarantine model was not on the agenda of Friday’s national cabinet meeting but, while this meeting was going on, it was discussed at length by teams of senior bureaucrats and policy advisers in Victoria’s Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The PM’s team recognises that considerable work has gone into the Victorian proposal.
The proposed site for a new COVID-19 quarantine centre is 40 hectares of vacant, Commonwealth-owned land on Melbourne’s northern edge.
Credit:Joe Armao
The preferred site in Mickleham – 40 acres of vacant Commonwealth land adjacent to an animal quarantine site used by the Department of Agriculture on Melbourne’s northern fringe – was chosen according to criteria stipulated by the federal government’s review of hotel quarantine conducted by former health secretary Jane Halton.
Quarantine facility: Shifting pandemic politics brings Canberra to the table theage.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theage.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Victorian government has sought to push the quarantine quandary onto Scott Morrison, announcing plans for a 500-bed, purpose-built facility north of Melbourne and calling on the federal government to pick up the $200 million-plus bill.
Acting Premier James Merlino said $15 million would be spent to immediately begin the design, but the final go-ahead would wait until September and was dependent on agreement with the Prime Minister.
The proposed cabin-style outdoor accommodation located more than 40 kilometres north of Melbourneâs CBD at Donnybrook Road, Mickleham would be on federal government land, next door to an existing pet quarantine facility.
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