The Australian Government’s India travel ban continues to come under fire and tonight was no different.
ABC’s Q&A started with a question from a viewer on the Government’s controversial move to ban travellers from India because of its COVID-19 catastrophe, which has been slammed as racist.
“First you grant us exemptions to go to India to look after our loved ones who are fighting for their lives, then you abandon us, leave us to die in a country that’s gasping for air,” the woman in the audience said.
“What kind of government does that to their own people?”
She pointed out how in 2020 the Prime Minister said he liked to have a family curry night.
“Is the value of Indians reduced to just our food or does he see us as equals?” she asked.
“It’s horrific. I’ve got extended family and friends in India and each day we hear stories that, we can’t even talk about those stories. What’s going on in India is horrible. And to know we’re not treated the same as everyone else, it’s just appalling.”
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Fiona Martin,Liberal MP for Reid in New South Wales, defended the Government’s decision and said it was not a not a political response but a “health response”.
“This decision has been based on health advice,” she said.
But Linda Burney,Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services, wasn’t having a bar of it. “I’m pretty sick of the health officials being lumbered with ‘this is what the health officials have advised,’” she shot back to Ms Martin.
“This is a political decision. Let us be clear.”
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Alan Kohler, finance journalist and editor-in-chief of The Eureka Report, suggested the ban could be a calculated move by Scott Morrison to become more popular.
“I wonder whether the Prime Minister watched the premiers last year take health advice and make really tough decisions throughout last year, to announce lockdowns, and as a result of that became more popular,” he said.
“All the premiers were tremendously popular. I reckon the Prime Minister probably thought if he took health advice and made very harsh decision on this, he would be more popular.
“The miscalculation was that Australians I think are very happy to make sacrifices themselves for the greater good but they are not happy asking other people who are less fortunate than themselves to make sacrifices for them.”
The law banning anyone who has been in India in the past 14 days from entering Australia came into force on Monday and is expected to lift on May 15.
The prospect of criminal sanctions for Australian citizens returning home has been met with uproar, but the government has stood by its decision.
Mr Morrison said on Tuesday the chance of anyone travelling home actually being jailed or fined was “pretty much zero”.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke told Sky News the ban was “fully consistent” with international human rights law.
“The government has to act for the public health and safety to protect Australia from threats,” he said.
“And we have acted in the context of a global pandemic to temporarily pause flights from a country that is rated high risk by our health officials.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS90cmF2ZWwvcHJpbWUtbWluaXN0ZXJzLW1pc2NhbGN1bGF0aW9uLW92ZXItaW5kaWEtdHJhdmVsLWJhbi1tb3ZlL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvMWQ3OWMwOGI2NzgwMGZiNTExOWM3YWI0YTAwZWMyN2PSAYQBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAubmV3cy5jb20uYXUvdHJhdmVsL3ByaW1lLW1pbmlzdGVycy1taXNjYWxjdWxhdGlvbi1vdmVyLWluZGlhLXRyYXZlbC1iYW4tbW92ZS9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzFkNzljMDhiNjc4MDBmYjUxMTljN2FiNGEwMGVjMjdj?oc=5
2021-05-06 13:40:59Z
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