Stranded Australians: Deputy PM puts onus on states to increase arrival caps by 2,000 a week
Australian Deputy PM Michael McCormack has shifted responsibility for repatriating more than 26,000 stranded Australians back on to the states, demanding that leaders jointly increase their arrival caps by 2,000 a week. The minister, whose infrastructure and transport portfolio gives him responsibility for the arrival caps, has written to the states asking them to increase the cap of 4,000 arrivals a week to 6,000. He said the South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, and NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, were “keen” to take more arrivals. McCormack said he had written to the premiers and chief ministers “telling them they need to” increase their limits. McCormack asked NSW, Queensland and WA to take 500 additional arrivals a week, and South Australia to take an extra 360. He encouraged the use of Gold Coast and Cairns as potential ports in addition to Brisbane in Queensland. Berejiklian said NSW would take an extra 500 arrivals a week, up to 2,950, but only on the condition that Queensland and Western Australia doubled their caps. She said she had been given an assurance by Scott Morrison on Tuesday that other states “would also take that load, and on that basis I was very pleased to do our bit”. Marshall said South Australia would increase its cap from 500 to 800 a week, but that only 600 of those would be for international arrivals, with the rest set aside for interstate quarantine. The Western Australia premier, Mark McGowan, blasted McCormack for publicly announcing the demand, saying it was “very directly outside the spirit of the national cabinet”. The Commonwealth should not “palm it all off” and instead work with the states to increase the number of arrivals, McGowan said. McCormack said the requests were based on best medical advice, hotel quarantine capacity, discussions from the last national cabinet meeting and “common sense”. McCormack said there were up to 30,000 Australians overseas who had registered their wish to return home. Citizenship law experts have also raised concerns the arrival caps are unconstitutional. The caps are in place until 24 October.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-09-17/general/stranded-australians-deputy-pm-puts-onus-on-states-to-increase-arrival-caps-by-2-000-a-week
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
Stranded Australians: Deputy PM puts onus on states to increase arrival caps by 2,000 a week
Australian Deputy PM Michael McCormack has shifted responsibility for repatriating more than 26,000 stranded Australians back on to the states, demanding that leaders jointly increase their arrival caps by 2,000 a week. The minister, whose infrastructure and transport portfolio gives him responsibility for the arrival caps, has written to the states asking them to increase the cap of 4,000 arrivals a week to 6,000. He said the South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, and NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, were “keen” to take more arrivals. McCormack said he had written to the premiers and chief ministers “telling them they need to” increase their limits. McCormack asked NSW, Queensland and WA to take 500 additional arrivals a week, and South Australia to take an extra 360. He encouraged the use of Gold Coast and Cairns as potential ports in addition to Brisbane in Queensland. Berejiklian said NSW would take an extra 500 arrivals a week, up to 2,950, but only on the condition that Queensland and Western Australia doubled their caps. She said she had been given an assurance by Scott Morrison on Tuesday that other states “would also take that load, and on that basis I was very pleased to do our bit”. Marshall said South Australia would increase its cap from 500 to 800 a week, but that only 600 of those would be for international arrivals, with the rest set aside for interstate quarantine. The Western Australia premier, Mark McGowan, blasted McCormack for publicly announcing the demand, saying it was “very directly outside the spirit of the national cabinet”. The Commonwealth should not “palm it all off” and instead work with the states to increase the number of arrivals, McGowan said. McCormack said the requests were based on best medical advice, hotel quarantine capacity, discussions from the last national cabinet meeting and “common sense”. McCormack said there were up to 30,000 Australians overseas who had registered their wish to return home. Citizenship law experts have also raised concerns the arrival caps are unconstitutional. The caps are in place until 24 October.<br/>
