An Australian court yesterday rejected a challenge to the federal government’s draconian power to prevent most citizens from leaving the country so that they do not bring COVID-19 home.
Australia is alone among developed democracies in preventing its citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country except in “exceptional circumstances” where they can demonstrate a “compelling reason.”
Most Australians have been stranded in their island nation since March last year under a government emergency order made under the Biosecurity Act.
Photo: AFP
Libertarian group LibertyWorks argued before the full bench of the Federal Court early last month that Australian Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt did not have the power to legally enforce the travel ban that has prevented thousands of Australians from attending weddings and funerals, caring for dying relatives and meeting newborn babies.
LibertyWorks lawyer Jason Potts argued that Australians had a right to leave their country under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that Australia had ratified.
However, the three judges ruled that submission was based on the “erroneous premise that the right is absolute.”
LibertyWorks’ lawyers also argued that such a biosecurity control order could only be imposed on an individual rather than an entire population. The order could only be imposed if that individual had symptoms of a listed human disease, had been exposed to such a disease or had failed to comply with travel requirements.
The judges said interpretation of the law would frustrate parliament’s clear intentions when lawmakers created the emergency powers in the Biosecurity Act in 2015.
“It may be accepted that the travel restrictions are harsh. It may also be accepted that they intrude upon individual rights,” the judges said in their ruling. “But parliament was aware of that.”
LibertyWorks president Andrew Cooper said he was considering an appeal to the High Court.
“We are very disappointed in the judgement today. We continue to believe that the outbound border closure is defective in law and, perhaps more importantly, unjust on human rights grounds. We must remind ourselves also that often things that are legal are not necessarily just,” Cooper said in an e-mail.
“While Europe and most of the world open up their borders, only North Korea and Australia stubbornly continue with strict controls over their citizen’s ability to leave their country,” he added.
He had expected hundreds of thousands of Australians to fly within weeks if he had won.
Critics of the emergency order said it is harshest for the 30 percent of Australians who were born overseas.
The government says tough border controls have played an important part in the nation’s relative success in containing the virus.
Surveys suggest most citizens applaud their government’s drastic border controls. In a survey by the Australian newspaper published last month, 73 percent of respondents said the international border should remain closed until at least the middle of next year.
In related news, Hunt said that Australians who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 would be able to leave the country and return with less strict quarantine requirements under a plan that could be trialed within six weeks.
Hunt revealed the proposal in the Coalition party room following a question from Liberal MP Jason Falinski, who had asked whether vaccination could see people exempted from outbound and inbound travel restrictions.
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