And the reasons are that it is just ridiculously expensive to use Christmas Island, and is surely likely to put the Australians at unnecessary risk of not being able to get the best treatment and drugs should they be needed.
I don't think anyone has a problem with the idea of quarantine per se - but is the government seriously suggesting there is no where suitable on mainland Australia near a capital city (or large rural centre with a major hospital) where the quarantining can be done?
Update: The Chaser take on it probably has an element of truth behind it - the government is probably itching to get more people into a facility it is already spending money on unnecessarily:
Update: and here's some support for my take:
Christmas Island is ill-prepared to receive a planeload of Australians from the coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan, with its medical facilities inadequate if somebody falls seriously ill, Australia’s peak medical body says.But I see that Labor has decided to not rock the boat - which seems ridiculous. I just do not believe that this could not be done cheaper and more effectively on Australian soil:
Head of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Tony Bartone, said Australia was ranked among the most capable countries in the world at containing the spread of infectious diseases, but that Christmas Island, chosen for its remoteness and because it has a detention centre, was ill-conceived as a health quarantine location.
The Federal Opposition is backing the decision to use Christmas Island to quarantine Australians returning from Wuhan.
Plans are underway to evacuate as many as 600 Australians from the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak in Hubei Province.
7 comments:
Balancing rights between the individual and the public could very well imply quarantine just so long as the prisoner (because thats what he is) is highly compensated. Best equipment, oxygen tents and such, $1000 a weak compensation plus the best food and board. Access to the best alternative treatments delivered with great despatch. Guaranteed no unfair dismissal for his job he has to take time off from. This sort of thing.
There are no heath officials who could help someone who gets the symptons!!
It gets worse. If anyone on Christmas Island gets the virus they are then flown to the mainland and then transported to a hospital.
“The Chaser take on it probably has an element of truth behind it – the government is probably itching to get more people into a facility it is already spending money on unnecessarily”
Unnecessarily? So what are you saying here? We pull out of the treaty? Swamp Australia with boat people? Check the lack of nuance and the bloody-mindedness.
"But I see that Labor has decided to not rock the boat - which seems ridiculous. I just do not believe that this could not be done cheaper and more effectively on Australian soil: "
For the reasons you have already said. The facility is not being used, which is part of the success of having the facility. The success of weapons is when they are not being used. If you actually have to use them thats a failure. Something the Americans since Reagan have seldom been able to grasp. Its better to have that facility and not need it than to need that facility and not have it. In the meantime we can continue to upgrade the facility and use it for a very pleasant quarantine. Then we have it later. Still upgraded and useful.
I think its magnificent if we are using it now just for one family. It means that family is still together and not being mistreated. But it means that we have successfully stopped the boat people. What would be still better is if we pulled out of the treaty, and had temporary dhimmitude as a guest worker program to develop the inland of the continent.
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