Given all these tennis brats whining about sub standard conditions, and that they are staying in place of Aussies, that need to Return? The only highlight is this
Do you think that Australian citizens should have been given priority over tennis players?
Only if they knew about us. They have been overseas , and are therefore affluent. This brings in a flowchart scenario.
Which probably means:-
What Phone do you own?
* Smartphone (Samsung, Oppo, Xiamoi etc)
* iPhone (Which model?)
Y - Smartphone (You are in, You are savvy with money)
Y- iPhone 12 (You can afford to stay longer, having supported Chinese Slave Labour)
Y- iPhone 11 (You can afford to stay longer, having supported Chinese Slave Labour)
Y- iPhone X (You can afford to stay longer, having supported Chinese Slave Labour)
Y- iPhone 9 (There is no such thing)
Y- iPhone 8 (You can afford to stay longer, having supported Chinese Slave Labour)
They have been overseas , and are therefore affluent.
How do you make that connection?
I know a few people who were living in the UK on a 2 year visa for a change who saved up for 2 or so years just to afford it.
They literally couldn’t get home even if they tried. Their visas are expiring in the next 6 months and they have no idea what they’re going to do, because they can’t afford $3k for quarantine and 5x lots of $2k one way flights (as most people keep getting bumped and refunds aren’t instant).
Usually people that own iPhones have heaps of credit, and brag/show off their latest iPhone.ETC
Which brands do you support that are ethically sourced, BOTD?
If they do I hope they remember to put the price and store in the title.
Where is the neither option?
I think all international arrivals should be banned so Australia can recover and move on to normal life.
If overseas was good enough to go over there and work etc it's good enough to stay there until this pandemic blows over. You can't have it both ways.
Yes, however, they may bring skills back with them, that can build our workforce up.
If overseas was good enough to go over there and work etc it's good enough to stay there until this pandemic blows over. You can't have it both ways.
Morality aside, this is illegal. Australian citizens have the right to return to Australia. What we're doing right now with arrivals is probably just the bare minimum for the federal government to be sued and end up having to pay damages to tens of thousands of people. If you think the federal government can just act with impunity and cannot be sued, see Robodebt.
That being said, I think the issue is much more nuanced than this. It's not just a matter of going overseas and working/staying there. Many people are posted overseas on medium term business with the expectation of returning by a certain date, many others may have had jobs overseas that they have now lost and can no longer stay there (as their visa would be expiring soon).
As an example, one of my friends works for a consulting firm in Sydney and was sent overseas on a 6 month post in December 2019. He's been trying to get back since April 2020 and has been in limbo ever since. His firm went through a restructure in the middle of last year (basically they went bust) and he was let go (literally whilst he was stuck in another country), he has to pay for his own accommodation and no longer received any salary. Luckily, he found a job with another Australian company, but still paying through the nose for accomodation and having to work at shitty hours with his new company because he's located around the world from them.
It's easy to say "haha fk you, you stay where you are", but that's not really a solution for many people. Having spoken to many of them myself, the process to return is not simple. If they could stay overseas, many would choose to.
Ultimately, I do think that there's too much whinging and whining from people in hotel quarantine, but a lot of it is just a media beat up.
Straight out of the Make Australia Great Again playbook. Here is a hint, I don't think it works out.
A tennis player creates local jobs. A returning citizen will probably collect welfare.
Potentially, however there have been some leaks.
Passing judgement on your fellow Australians on hypotheticals. What about the Australians who worked, pay taxes and contributed to our communities, shall we abandon them too?
What about the Australians who worked, pay taxes and contributed to our communities, shall we abandon them too?
The ones who chose to stay overseas after they were warned the borders would soon close, and now they changed their minds?
Thought about the ones who tried to come back before huge limits were imposed on the amount of people allowed to enter our ports, and had their flights cancelled due to restrictions, airlines cancelling flights, closed airports, lockdowns etc?
The tennis players didn't affect any Aussies coming home. It was all paid and set up by Tennis Australia.
Yep, money talks, as usual.
This suggests it’s costs and “set up” that is prohibiting aussies returning home.
This is not the case, it’s capacity. I’m pretty sure with the extra 1200 tennis folks coming here they have taken the capacity of an Australian wishing to come home.
Aussies wishing to come home are paying their own way in any case. They just don’t have the opportunity due to capacity.
Except the tennis players are not using facilities that are for Aussies coming back. It's separate chartered planes, separate hotels and separate staff. Dan Andrews even said this might allow the gov to increase capacity after tennis is over as there will be a bunch of trained up staff as result with no cost to gov.
These hotels and staff would have been used for overseas aussies if they weren't used for the tennis. That's the point. These people who are supervising won't be doing nothing if the tennis wasn't on. All state governments are ramping up capacity, Vic is just using it for tennis instead of returning aussies.
There is a plane full of WSL surfers, crew and media coming from US end of month too.
Not to Victoria…
Not now. Newcastle first stop.
Dan is obviously a tennis fan and doesn't follow surfing…
He is a hypocrite when it come to equality…
Aus open should go ahead - Best way to show the world we are doing well against Covid.
Let Aussies come home - there are so many Aussies out there without a job/accommodation and trapped.
Both options are possible, we should be proud of our self to hosting a international event while rest of the world still locked down.
State governments should open up more hotel quarantine facilities, not just NSW.
And I'm not even a tennis fan.
and that they are staying in place of Aussies, that need to Return?
Are you sure about that?
Where's the option for Scumo has done sweet F all?
The guy delegated to the states to pick up his inability to lead. It's a national level issue to bring "stranded" Aussies back if they want to come back.
Why are AUstralians such an either/or type of people? In more developed countries, tall poppy is less of an issue. We can move on with our frigging lives while we deal with this pandemic. It's not an issue to let international tournaments proceed!
Israel vaccinated millions of their people within a few weeks. My bet is Australia will once again drag the chain by doing unnecessary regulatory checks on a vaccine that has been consumed by millions of people worldwide. Apparently, humans are a different species in each country.
I hit yes but the truth is i dont want either in Australia till the vaccine is rolled out….
I had to return to the UK in November when my mum died, was in London for a month. I was fortunate to get a repatriation flight back and quarantined for 2 weeks in Howard Springs. Australia has done well, through learning from the mistakes in the Ruby Princess/Melbourne episodes - but the majority of this success is down to the protectionism of state leaders, Scomo, as he does in most situation hides and claims the efforts of others as personal political triumphs.
There are lots of reasons for Australian's abroad needing to come home:
Many were working on temporary visas, that have now expired
Lots of firms have made redundancies, Most Australians are cut out of state support
Hospo work in pubs and restaurants has been near non-existent for 6 months
Lots of burnt out health workers after a year of this shit
Ill health and anxiety, financial problems, and
They are Australians - they shouldn't have to explain why
Flight availability due to caps, short term changes ruling transit countries Hotspots and rocketing prices ($5k for a one way economy) is proving impossible for many to come back and they are desperately watching caps and announcements. The situation is worse now than when I was abroad.
The government needs a strategy, as time continues more people will need to leave Australia and return, more quarantine facilities (and probably more remote facilities in line with mutations) are required and there is no long term plan - the vaccination talk is still pretty weak, when will it complete?
The return to Australia is bloody expensive, and it will be galling when celebrities turn up at Byron Bay or agree home quarantine, when the Indian team/Tennis stars and their entourages turn up in the 100's or when Tony Abbot can fly back and forwards seemingly at will. It is easier to guarantee a return when you can afford $50k for your family of 4 to return on business class. It's not like they are coming back to paradise - many are broke and will be looking for work in a pandemic.
Some of the commentary here is just heartless. Easy to roll up a spectrum of experiences into a "they should have come back earlier" - some families have been bumped from their return flights with a days notice and are relying on friends to stay out of homelessness.
Aussies Coming Home?
Why can't they return? No international flights?
You need to go out more read some news.
There is a limit on intake due to lack of hotel quarantine facilities. Therefore very few airlines want to take up for the challenge with availability of only first class or business class tickets.
So this is a basic supply and demand issue.
Best of luck to those that are still waiting for the supply to pick up.
Hmm that got me thinking.
Must be sweet for airlines -
@cuteseal: Actually quite the opposite. Australian government keeps chopping and changing the rules, its nearly impossible for everyone to keep up with these changes.
Lets say there is a limit of 500 incoming passengers a week/35 per flight for Sydney (like it was end of last year)…the airlines fill these 35 seats for all their upcoming flights and then the government drops the limit to 30 per flight (beginning of this year). This creates a wave of cancellations and angry customers and even bigger loss for the airline…so i dont think the airlines gain anything from this situation.
The December 2020 arrivals have been published by the ABS and interesting how soooooooooooooooooooooo many non-Australians are still arriving into the country whilst Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party are claiming to be TOUGH on borders. My lay extrapolation is that the only people they are tough on is regular John and Jane Australians who are prevented from leaving or arriving !
All arrivals - by citizenship
The five largest countries of citizenship (excluding Australian) for all arrivals to Australia in December 2020 were:
New Zealand (4,900), increasing 33.2% compared to the previous month
India (1,700), increasing 50.3%
China (1,300), increasing 11.2%
UK (1,100), decreasing 10.7%
USA (780), decreasing 0.1%.
Going back a month;
All arrivals - by citizenship
The five largest countries of citizenship (excluding Australian) for all arrivals to Australia in November 2020 were:
New Zealand (3,700), increasing 51.2% compared to the previous month
UK (1,300), increasing 9.6%
China (1,200), increasing 20.7%
India (1,100), increasing 6.3%
USA (780), increasing 11.1%.
But I bet 90%+ of these are permanent residents who Australia has accepted as being allowed to enter and stay in the country, soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo it has nothing to do with being TOUGH on borders.
I guess there's a question about whether citizen should get priority over permanent residents.
Also interesting that the total arrivals isn't close to the 4000/week quota for December … but then who knows what the quota is on any given day of the week.
I think the main issue with figures for "getting people home" is the fact that they are counting all Australian's living abroad, and not those that actually want to come home. On top of this, I imagine the flight cost is the biggest factor, followed by the lack of timeframes for flights and finally the cost of quarantine.
It can cost $5000 a flight per person and in some cases you may only know if you are flying hours to 24 hours beforehand. This makes it difficult to plan your life if you don't know if and when you are going to be able to travel.
All to get to Australia and then have to find a place to live and a job in a place where rent is expensive and there are not many jobs because of COVID.
If I’m not mistaken, didn’t the AU government announce/highly recommend that anyone overseas should return to Australia?
I think it was early/mid 2020.
If they didn’t come home when they were highly advised to, shouldn’t be complaining.
I dont know where these urban myths are from. But actually when covid first hit then AI govt told everyone to stay there IF they have jobs. But over time the story changed. Now lots of people have lost their jobs overseas and now when they are trying to return they are being ridiculed thanks to our local media
We also strongly urge Australians looking to return home to do so as soon as possible.
Not sure why people are down voting us…
If it’s wrong explain why…
Baysew just provided evidence to what I’m saying…
I'm waiting for the animation movie, Ratatenni.
It's about a motel room rat that assists a mediocre low ranking tennis player slowly move up through the ranks in nail biting thrilling sets, to eventually win the entire tournament.
Ratatenni.
A very sad thread - Australians haven't been of much interest to the Federal government for over 30 years - except when they are selling some bullshit policy and want to use nationalism.
Australian values? leaving Australians to fend for themselves is new - no wonder we align with Malaysia, India and Saudi Arabia….
Tennis players ?
Ask your local Member of parliament about the 12k skilled migrants that have come into the country .
are we still doing that?
Depends, would they contribute to OzBargain if they did return?