Page 1491 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 2021
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The lockdown and general pressure from COVID outbreaks interstate have been high. Border closures and varying restrictions interstate have been effective and successful but difficult to deal with. This is exacerbated by the number of people who have made Canberra their home but who grew up interstate or overseas and still have family and friends elsewhere.
However, while it has been a difficult year for everyone, I cannot imagine the stress and anxiety for those Canberrans who have family and friends in countries particularly impacted by the pandemic—from Iran to Indonesia, the USA, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Central and South America.
The coronavirus crisis in India, Nepal, Pakistan and other South Asian countries at the moment, and what is on the way in future weeks, is unprecedented in this unprecedented pandemic. The images coming out of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kathmandu and other areas of the region are horrifying: hospitals running out of oxygen, running out of beds, sick patients being treated in car parks or in rickshaws, sick patients dying in the street. It is grim beyond imagining.
Canberra, particularly my electorate of Yerrabi, is home both to a large community of people who have migrated from India and made Canberra their home and to people of Indian heritage who were born in Canberra or elsewhere in Australia. I have been speaking to several of my constituents who are part of this community in Yerrabi, and this is a really difficult time both for the constituents I know personally and for the community as a whole. Several of the constituents I know well have lost close family members in the last fortnight. Many members of the community have been spending hours and a lot of money desperately trying to get access to oxygen and medical care for their families in India.
There are few situations that I can imagine which would leave a person and community feeling more helpless and desperate. This is a situation that was beyond imagining a year ago. My heart goes out to every single member of the Indian community in Canberra during this time.
While this crisis is impacting members of the Indian community in Australia and their family and friends in India, the federal government has moved not to provide any particular help to Australians in India, but quite the opposite! From late April the federal government moved to further restrict flights coming in from India, leading to the cancellation of many flights and seats booked by hundreds of Australians attempting to return home. Since then the federal government has additionally banned all returns from India. This is without precedent. Never has quarantined return not been available to Australian citizens who can find a path home.
I note that they have subsequently backflipped after outcry and that the ban will be lifted this Saturday. However, I also note that, when the situation in the United States got particularly bad with cases in December and January, returns through quarantined stations were not totally halted. When the UK was experiencing extremely high cases over the New Year period, including the appearance of a potentially worrying new strain, there was no blanket halt to returnees.
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