Quarantine

Two weeks and $4500? I reckon there’s gonna be nine tenths of fuck all punters willing to go through this. Hopefully they don’t cancel your flights on ya bro. Mind you it’s still a while away so there might even be a vaccine, or possibly the virus brought under control in both Indo and Australia. Gutsy move though. I wish you all the best.

I fully understand why they have brought in people covering quarantine cost, but man that sucks big time with family id be up for $4,500 too, not to mention id miss 2 weeks of income and two weeks locked up in the Melbourne id go crazy.

Im already going crazy not getting back to Indo, if i dont get back next year im going to go totally crazy.

$4500 per person ?

Sydney prices
As of Saturday July 18, all inbound travellers will be charged the following rates for their 14-day hotel quarantine:

$3,000 for one adult
$1,000 for each additional adult
$500 for each child aged three and over (children under three years will stay free of charge)
Those prices include meals, although the government will still pick up the cheque for transport to the hotel, security and logistics.

this hotel quarrentine model is so dumb, very big end of town centric...

good for keeping big end hotels in cash but not very smart or equitable

I travel regularly, yet have never stayed, or had the money to stay in the type of accomodation Im expected to pay for on return from my holiday

but its not just about me, the whole model is dumb. as one astute guest said on abc this week, quarrentining people in the middle of our big cities is all kinds of dumb.

in the past quarrentine was done on the outskirts of cities, in wide open spaces, well away from the potential of infecting dense populations. contained accomodation where people can actually go outside and have a bit of a healthy normal life, rather than being couped up in a luxury box getting cabin fever with an nice overlay of virus fear in the air

imagine being a smoker, no wonder people are escaping

they shoulda brought in the home d. model, with gps trackers to keep people at home

overpriced towers of containment in the cbd might be good for rydges, but Im thinking not the smartest model and totally unsustainable

Disagree pretty much completely. Home detention is less likely to effectively isolate people. The cities have a large volume of currently unused, very secure accommodation. Suburbs on the edge of cities have very little. Regional centres have the accomodation but it is much less secure. If people are isolated effectively the population in the surrounding area makes no difference. As for the cost, people have had every opportunity to return and stay at the government's expense. They were even given notice that if they bought as ticket immediately they would not have to pay. Those who have chosen to stay have done so in full knowledge. Smokers? We're doing them a favour if it helps them quit permanently....which a substantial majority always want. Inconvenient and unpleasant? Yes, but no apologies, it's for the safety of the wider community. Give me convenience or give me death? If that's your thinking try the US or Brazil. They are working on that basis.

What about Christmas Island for quarantining returning AU citizens?

Apart from the optics of having AU citizens behind razor wire it’s perfect in every way as a traditional quarantine station I would have thought.

Views?

Oh, as a matter of goodwill Dutton could free that one refugee family living there all year.

'Disagree pretty much completely. Home detention is less likely to effectively isolate people.'

Pretty sure there be no evidence to support this assumption. If people are gps confined to their property, it sounds a whole lot safer than being confined to a tower, amongst a high density population centre, being serviced by an army of support staff...

'vertical cruise ship' anyone? (4.5 star...)

'The cities have a large volume of currently unused, very secure accommodation. Suburbs on the edge of cities have very little.'

confined to house and property, so irrelevant

'Regional centres have the accomodation but it is much less secure.'

seems regional centres are ideal for setting up a quarrentine centres, as has been done before

'If people are isolated effectively the population in the surrounding area makes no difference.'

yeh well, thats gone well...

'makes no difference' ...hardly...

'As for the cost, people have had every opportunity to return and stay at the government's expense. They were even given notice that if they bought as ticket immediately they would not have to pay. Those who have chosen to stay have done so in full knowledge.'

I've actually got no problem with people paying, ...assumptions again... they have had plenty of time and warning to return to oz. however, are we going to lock into this pretty dumb, super expensive/energy intensive, unsustainable model for years to come? for anyone wishing to leave oz anytime? seems dumb, totally out of step, and very short sighted

Smokers? We're doing them a favour if it helps them quit permanently....which a substantial majority always want. Inconvenient and unpleasant? Yes, but no apologies, it's for the safety of the wider community. Give me convenience or give me death? If that's your thinking try the US or Brazil. They are working on that basis.'

Geez those assumptions! ...its not an either/or...

its about managing stuff, ... 'living with the virus...'

christmas island sounds reasonable, or rotto, quarrantine 'quarrantines' vic, the island in sydney, ki...

anything sounds better than the expensive, energy intensive, vertical cruise ship model

The old quarantine stations are no longer serviceable, visited both Melbourne’s and Sydney’s. But if Covid19 continues 1-2 plus years more, remote quarantining of people will become highly desirable eg Christmas Island.

We tried home quarantining of people early on in Victoria, surprise surprise people went out. There’s no arguing with stupid, it needs to be strictly supervised.

Agree, outdoor exercise for those quarantining highly desirable which brings me back to Christmas Island

Guy, Xmas Island has a local population which wouldn't be too stoked. Peter Dutton has never committed an act of goodwill in his life. That family of four currently housed there, including two kids born in Australia, cost $30 k a day to keep them there.

"anything sounds better than the expensive, energy intensive, vertical cruise ship model"

Except scattering them all over the country in their own homes. I mean the GPS sends a signal that they are in the local shopping centre then, assuming there is active 24/7 supervision, the local police are notified who set off to find moving targets in crowded locations. Assuming that they are available. Sounds like a recipe for widespread community transmission to me. It only takes a couple of idiots.
Guy if it goes on long enough they may create specialised centres but for the time being I suspect that there are plenty of workers servicing those hotels who are bloody glad to have the work. If you take the right attitude I think the current arrangements would be manageable though some allowance might be made for larger families with younger children.

Andrews, who has rightly or wrongly taken the blame for the quarantine problem, has also come up with the solution which is to give it to the Dept. of Corrections who are the people most suited for the job.

Agree on all points adam12.

Highly likely that politics and not practicalities is the only reason why Australians aren't already quarantining there which is really odd because if AU had effective quarantining from day one we would be in a way better position right now, if fact, probably Covid19 free.

Just think remote quarantining needs to be on the table, city based hotels were fine as a quick fix, but in the absence of a vaccine they aren't ideal in the months and years ahead.