Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[Lynda2475]

I think its ridiculous given the situation that they were contemplating playing cricket at all. The self entitlement of sports people is utter arrogance, cancel the competition, stop unnecessary travel, not hitting a ball for a while isnt the end of the world.

The government didn't need to ban indian arrivals outright, could have suspended direct commercial flights made howard springs Indian reaptriation arrivals only for next month, with other less risky repatriation flights going to other capitals.

I note that the current ban still has some exemptions for diplomats and the like.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I think its ridiculous given the situation that they were contemplating playing cricket at all. The self entitlement of sports people is utter arrogance, cancel the competition, stop unnecessary travel, not hitting a ball for a while isnt the end of the world.

How about we turn this around and ask how self-entitled and arrogant are you?

This is their career and their livelihood, the way they put food on the table and pay the same taxes you or I pay.

I view a professional sportsperson the same as any other worker. They are essential because they work. It is not on them that they have to be overseas and be there in person in order to conduct their work and get paid.

 

[mviy]

Pat coughmins is 27. At this age he is at the peak of his physical capabilities and as a fast bowler he may not have long left of being able to perform at the level he currently does and post playing cricket may only be able to earn a fraction of the income from a new career.

If he wants to go and play a cricket tournament I think he should be allowed to just as much as we should be allowed to travel if we accept the risks.

 

[Pushka]

This is their career and their livelihood, the way they put food on the table and pay the same taxes you or I pay.

I view a professional sportsperson the same as any other worker. They are essential because they work. It is not on them that they have to be overseas and be there in person in order to conduct their work and get paid.

Well, when states shut down, plenty of cafes and restaurants closed too, some never to re-open. Any difference?

But in rethinking, plenty of people have received exemptions for work travel so this is no different. Just more public.

 

[Flashback]

Well, when states shut down, plenty of cafes and restaurants closed too, some never to re-open. Any difference?

But in rethinking, plenty of people have received exemptions for work travel so this is no different. Just more public.

Indeed, we've had several local businesses around us close, never to reopen. Even with some small grants from the local council etc. it wasn't enough and they've therefore gone out of business.

 

[drron]

Correct, once everyone in 1A, 1B and 2A are vaccinated (or don't refuse), death rate would fall to practically NIL. Both vaccines proven to effectively reduce deaths to NIL. In fact old fashioned flu will kill 10 times more 80+ year olds every year than COVID. Is next step quarantining flu sufferers?

Just for safety I am supportive of getting everyone vaccinated before borders open. Say by end if Q1 2022?? Further, only vaccinated visitors allowed in quarantine free, non vaccinated still can enter, but HQ same as current.

Need pollies to state intentions for 2022. I think there will be an early election Oct/Nov this year. I'm voting Labour. Scomo good with words but no commitments, little action.

First even if everyone is vaccinated the death rate won't fall to Nil.Up until mid april 74 fully vaccinated people died of Covid.Over 5000 caught Covid and a little over 300 were hospitalised.Yes very good results but we are going to have to learn to live with Covid as we live with the flu.

And flu doesn't kill 10 times more 80+ year olds than covid.50-100K Americans die every year from flu.Covid has killed 500K.
And Covid is more likely to kill more 80 year olds as flu because death rates with flu are also high in young people as well as 80+ olds.

 

[hb13]

We’ll have to disagree on this one... a 12% death rate, to me at least, is not a mild risk.

The only terrifying precedent I have seen is the minority view on the rights and dignity of the elderly and vulnerable in this pandemic. That they are somehow ‘dispensable’. If this virus affected young children, and 12% of all those catching the virus died, I wonder if the attitude to closing borders would be different?

Where has anyone shown that view on the elderly and vulnerable? People here have said open the borders after all vulnerable and elderly have been fully vaccinated, as well as take care of stranded Australians needing to come home. Can you point out where anyone has posted a comment indicating they are 'dispensable'? If you can't, maybe you should retract your statement.

You'll blindly defend the government all day - a government that will threaten to jail its own people if they try and come home.

You've not once given a solid reason why the government can bring in foreigners, movie stars, movie-star sibling and sports stars, yet stranded Aussies are languishing.

 

[oznflfan]

First even if everyone is vaccinated the death rate won't fall to Nil.Up until mid april 74 fully vaccinated people died of Covid.Over 5000 caught Covid and a little over 300 were hospitalised.Yes very good results but we are going to have to learn to live with Covid as we live with the flu.

And flu doesn't kill 10 times more 80+ year olds than covid.50-100K Americans die every year from flu.Covid has killed 500K.
And Covid is more likely to kill more 80 year olds as flu because death rates with flu are also high in young people as well as 80+ olds.

Agree we have to live with it yes. Tell that to State Premiers. Big mind shift to willingly allow COVID into say WA once vaccinated tourists arrive (say) end of next year. If for example USA fully vaccinated surely COVID death rates would be a fraction of the current 50-100K flu deaths though?
Didn't CDC just come out with your chance of dying from COVID two weeks after fully vaccinated by Pfizer or Moderna was 1 in a Million*? That's 330 COVID deaths in USA next year.

*Not sure how legitimate or how calculated by sure this includes 18 year olds as well as 98 year olds.

 

[Lynda2475]

This is their career and their livelihood, the way they put food on the table and pay the same taxes you or I pay.

Aussie IPL players earn very high salaries, pausing games for a month or two until covid situation in India is better controlled is not going to see them unable to feed their families.

The tax situation is debateable, if they spend more of the year outside Australia than in, they arent residents for tax purposes, so entirely possible they are paying no or very little tax here.

Many people the world over lost work and jobs due to Covid.

I lost my job last year due to Covid, it interrupted my career. Ive been fortunate to secure a new job, but its not as ideal for career as my previous one.

The world has changed very few people get the luxury of a single career, most will have 3-5 careers over a lifetime and have to reinvent themeselves and retrain to stay relevant.

I view a professional sportsperson the same as any other worker. They are essential because they work. It is not on them that they have to be overseas and be there in person in order to conduct their work and get paid.

The thing is India is not the only place they can play cricket, they go there for the obscene salaries but shouldn't put this ahead of public safety right now. Its a pandemic and some temporary sacrifices need to be made. Pause the competition, it simply isnt essential.

If Covid was being adequately managed in India, then play on. But with 350k cases a day and an overwhelmed health system, allowing privilidged foreign athletes to travel round the country playing a game is wrong.

We have project teams based in India at the moment who cant complete some work, because there are movement restrictions in many regions. The double standard is galling. An IT worker is not allowed to go to a data centre to fix essential hardware (computers that run software that keeps thousands employed) but a cricketer is allowed to go to an oval? Which one is really essential right now?

 

[drron]

But interestingly you are quite rightly not worried about a mortality rate of 1 in a million deaths from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the USA.
Yet the mortality rate of the rare clotting side effect with the AZ vaccine is also 1 in a million.
Put it another way.If every person in the world was vaccinated with the AZ vaccine then you would expect world wide 7900 deaths from that side effect. So far Covid has killed 375 times that number.

 

[oznflfan]

But interestingly you are quite rightly not worried about a mortality rate of 1 in a million deaths from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the USA.
Yet the mortality rate of the rare clotting side effect with the AZ vaccine is also 1 in a million.
Put it another way.If every person in the world was vaccinated with the AZ vaccine then you would expect world wide 7900 deaths from that side effect. So far Covid has killed 375 times that number.

Mother nature paying us back.

You really do go bat cough crazy with photo's. Feel I know Geraldton like a local now, even though never been. Looked like fun.

 

[Tiki]

It is an unimaginable world where a Government can ban its own citizens from returning to their country. Whatever the circumstances.

I am appalled and horrified by the treatment of our citizens overseas. If they can find 1400 quarantine spots for tennis players, why can't the govt rent out the same spaces and staff and start bringing stranded Aussies home? Just wait until Aussies start dying in India because they had a stroke, heart attack or car accident and they couldn't get into a hospital. I can't believe how low our country is sinking just to keep 0 cases/community spread or whatever. It's like a dystopian nightmare I can't wake up from. Some weird version of Utopia/North Korea/Soviet Union. I am on a few survey sites, I never get asked to do an opinion poll on Covid, I would not be in the "majority".

Remember when it was all about "flatten the curve, don't overwhelm the health system"?

Now we are threatening desperate citizens with jail and fines for trying to come home and do quarantine. I am afraid to imagine what comes next? And why are Aussies here tolerating all this? Did they get some kind of kool-aid I didn't get?

This Alexander Downer guy (wrote that article) seems to have common sense and a political background. Can he be the next PM? Please?

 

[Pushka]

This Alexander Downer guy (wrote that article) seems to have common sense and a political background. Can he be the next PM? Please?

Downer was leader of the Australian Liberal Party and Home Affairs Minister. But never elected as PM. Now he can say what he really thinks.

 

[Pom-DownUnder]

"If you come HOME" we will jail you.

Its no wonder there is no bill of rights here.

Shocking. Fair weather friends to their own citizenry.

 

[dajop]

Downer was leader of the Australian Liberal Party and Home Affairs Minister. But never elected as PM. Now he can say what he really thinks.

Fun fact: Alexander Downer is the, last (26 years ago) leader of the Liberal Party that did not represent an electorate based in Sydney ( and his just over 6 months as leader was the only period in the last 30 years that a Sydney based MP wasn't leader of the Party).

 

[jase05]

"If you come HOME" we will jail you.

Its no wonder there is no bill of rights here.

Shocking. Fair weather friends to their own citizenry.

It’s all just bluff and bluster. No one will be fined or sent to jail.
I’d assume the governments get out clause is that people are still allowed to come home via a third country so they will say we are not denying them entry

 

[Princess Fiona]

The only other two countries I am following closely regarding bans for travel from those who have been in India in the last two days are:

Singapore: Bans entry or transit for anyone who has been in India in the last 14 days except Citizens and Permanent Residents of Singapore

New Zealand: Travellers from those countries will be temporarily restricted to New Zealand citizens, their partners and children, and parents of children who are New Zealand citizens

But already Singapore was accepting international arrivals 5x per capita and New Zealand 2x per capita compared to Australia's arrivals Both only one major layer of government, who are unable to outsource either the operation or political blame for any problems to subsidiary governments, like Australia can.

New Zealand banned everyone from India including their own NZ Citizens and permanent residents from 11th April until the 28th April.

 

[dajop]

New Zealand banned everyone from India including their own NZ Citizens and permanent residents from 11th April until the 28th April.

OK, hopefully Australia government will take a similar approach and this is just a pause arrivals for just over 2 weeks, and put plans together to facilitate repatriation of citizens in a way such that medical needs and risks to the Australian community can be managed.

 

[Princess Fiona]

OK, hopefully Australia government will take a similar approach and this is just a pause arrivals for just over 2 weeks, and put plans together to facilitate repatriation of citizens in a way such that medical needs and risks to the Australian community can be managed.

I’m fairly certain that’s exactly what they are doing. The positive cases in HQ are putting some strain on the states capabilities not to mention that other travelers are contracting Covid-19 in HQ from positive cases.
All of this has been lost with the horror that everyone feels about the suspension being put under the Biosecurity Act and subject to the same penalties as other breaches of it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It’s all just bluff and bluster. No one will be fined or sent to jail.
I’d assume the governments get out clause is that people are still allowed to come home via a third country so they will say we are not denying them entry

Via a third country only if they satisfy at least 14 days of quarantine or stay there.

But agree... the penalties are drafted with the worst case scenario in mind. They represent the maximum. In a case like this that could be something like a covid positive passenger, with a faked negative PCR test, giving false information to airlines and authorities about their intentions to travel, booking connecting flights on separate tickets via a third country, and putting Aussies on those connecting flights at risk.

Deliberate actions like that probably require some sort of penalty.