Australia’s self-inflicted coronavirus woes

This advice opened up the notorious ‘third country’ route, through which more than 31,000 Chinese students ultimately entered Australia between the imposition of the China entry ban on February 1 and the closure of Australia’s international borders on March 20. [International Education Association of Australia CEO] Phil Honeywood called this figure “definitely encouraging”, while Australian Border Force commissioner Michael Outram said he was “delighted” that students “did what we wanted them to do” and “were fully compliant with our policy intent.”

Hooked on foreign student revenue like crack cocaine, the universities began encouraging Chinese students to skirt the travel bans after receiving the green-light from Canberra. The ban had barely been enacted when reports emerged that the Morrison government was considering loosening restrictions and providing further exemptions for foreign students (the greedy, selfish universities continue to lobby for the entry of foreign students to be fast-tracked while everybody else lives under restrictions).

The Morrison government also dragged its feet in expanding travel restrictions to other global virus hotspots, introducing mandatory quarantine for incoming arrivals, and effectively dealing with the infection threat from cruise ships.

As imported coronavirus cases began to soar in March, the government ultimately made the decision to largely shut Australia’s borders altogether.

The CIS report makes a strong case that the Commonwealth’s failure to employ adequate border security measures during the critical early stages of the pandemic may have inflicted a lot more pain on the country than was necessary. It should serve as a costly reminder to our leaders: national borders are our first line of defence and should be used accordingly to protect Australian citizens from outside threats.