Family Christmas

I have a son in Tokyo and a son in Singapore both of whom I want to come home for Christmas, they have flights booked but I so far cannot get an answer from the Health Minister is they will be allowed to come.

Unlikely, assuming home means Australia. Unless they arrive 2 weeks before Christmas and do the quarantine.

Our UK/AU family Christmas in Thailand/Singapore has been postponed. We were hoping for Jan/Feb but reckon it will be Easter at best.

If your sons are Australian citizens, they'll definitely be allowed to come. The two questions you need to ask are:

• Will they required to undergo compulsory hotel quarantine once they do arrive?
• How much will that quarantine cost?

But, assuming they're Australian citizens, they'll be allowed in, no question.

Skier, do you honestly think within 6 weeks there will be ZERO quarantine for all incoming arrivals?

At the very least it will roll back to quarantine at your fixed address, like it was before it went mandatory at a hotel. Right?

Originally Posted by skier

doubt if there will be any quarantine next month. Xmas ? That's over 4 months away. A day is a long time in politics & all this corona rubbish has become political now, nothing to do with medicine.

God I hope you're right, but I'm pretty certain quarantine will be in place until early 2021

I feel for your predicament.

You should also consider if your sons are indeed allowed into the country, how easy it will be to obtain the required permission to leave again if they need to return to Japan / Singapore.

If they do decide to return then they should start the process sooner rather than later given the current cap on arrivals from overseas and an increased demand around Christmas.

The people with government jobs wont understand this but lock down,border closures etc are fine but what happens when the consequences start to unravel and mental health, economics start to destroy people and society as we know it; thus rendering pandemic measures equally damaging . There needs to be a different strategy. The elderly and the sick need to be priorities.

The only thing i can think of as an alternative is over 55s "shield" and await priority doses of vaccine.

Under 55s get back to working and travelling, employing social distancing, mask wearing in public and good hand hygiene.

But then again, govt must have considered this option and discounted it for various reasons.

Originally Posted by Sibelius

If your sons are Australian citizens, they'll definitely be allowed to come. The two questions you need to ask are:

• Will they required to undergo compulsory hotel quarantine once they do arrive?
• How much will that quarantine cost?

But, assuming they're Australian citizens, they'll be allowed in, no question.

But they won't be allowed back out!

If they are Australian citizens, they will certainly be allowed in.

They may need to quarantine for 14 days, if that's still the status quo in 4 months from now. (Leaving Australia may be more problematic.)

You cant expect the government to give firm commitments about something that far in the future. The situation with this virus is constantly changing (just look at NZ and Victoria).

No-one can forecast with accuracy this far out what the weather will be on a particular day in December. Nor can they predict where we will be with the virus then.

Originally Posted by skier

in the unlikely event that there will be any quarantine after Sept 2020, they can cry poor & govt will pay. This welfare state is out of control.

Oh dear...

Originally Posted by olliek57

Skier, do you honestly think within 6 weeks there will be ZERO quarantine for all incoming arrivals?

At the very least it will roll back to quarantine at your fixed address, like it was before it went mandatory at a hotel. Right?

I think Skier may be a pseudonym of another regular visitor to this and other sites. He has lots of different names because he is often banned and he can agree with himself. My advice, best not to feed the trolls.

Originally Posted by Sibelius

If your sons are Australian citizens, they'll definitely be allowed to come. The two questions you need to ask are:

• Will they required to undergo compulsory hotel quarantine once they do arrive?
• How much will that quarantine cost?

But, assuming they're Australian citizens, they'll be allowed in, no question.

The other issue is with restricted arrivals there is no guarantee they will be able to get flights home. Flights and arrivals will be restricted until the end of October at least and probably longer. With the restricted seat inventory, airlines are naturally preferencing J class seats to maximise revenue so Y class passengers have very little likelihood of being able to obtain flights.

Even if the Victorian mass outbreak is brought under control, the states are likely to want to continue the restrictions on inbound passenger numbers.

Christmas gatherings will have to be on zoom this year.

Skier I reckon GregXL knew exactly what he meant when he typed "Christmas gatherings will have to be on zoom this year".

I think the Australian government will at some stage move to quarantine at your fixed address for 14 days like it was a while back.

I'd be surprised (but happy) if this happened in time for Christmas, but it wouldn't really help those families such as the poster who want visitors from other countries over for Christmas for 7-10 days and then returning to their place of residence.