Australia's cattle quarantine style COVID response could mean millions in compensation being paid to Australians stranded overseas : Will Scott Morrison & the Premiers be to Australian humans what Joe Ludwig was to cattle

 by Ganesh Sahathevan

PM Scott Morrison

In responding to the COVID  contagion Australian states and the Commonwealth have resorted to measures normally applied to the control of  infectious diseases in livestock including cattle. Australia's quarantine systems are among the strictest in the world, and designed to ensure that the farm and agricultural sector is  protected from any foreign disease. 

Australia also takes a strict approach to the treatment of its livestock, banning for example the export of cattle to Indonesia when the government owned ABC 4 Corners reported that Australian livestock was being mistreated (before slaughter) in Indonesia.

That decision caused very substantial loss and damage to farmers  who relied on that trade. They took the Commonwealth Government to court, and won millions  in compensation. In handing down his decision in that case Federal Court judge Stephen Rares found that the ban was “capricious and unreasonable”, and that the minister concerned ,Joe Ludwig, had committed the “tort of misfeasance” in public office by imposing the live export ban without regard to its possible (not probable) illegality and the losses it would cause.

In declaring the lockout of Australian citizens and permanent residents in response to COVID outbreaks in Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison has never really provided reasons. 

In fact  Barry Abrams from the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA) has said that BARA  has yet to be provided any research or evidence to show that cutting the caps on arrivals substantially reduces the risk of COVID.

There seems to be little if anything that separates Joe Ludwig and Soctt Morrison, together with the premiers and chief ministers.

If cattle, why not Australians stranded overseas.

TO BE READ WITH 

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

International airline association says Australian Govt has not provided any evidence to show "that cutting the caps substantially reduces the risk of COVID"

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Reported by the SMH: 

Barry Abrams from the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA) .... called on governments to show what evidence it has that cutting the number of people allowed into Australia will substantially reduce the risk of a COVID outbreak.

“We’re yet to see any research or evidence on how cutting the caps substantially reduces the risk of COVID,” he said.

The above adds to the evidence that the decision to cap, and now further halve the cap on arrivals is being driven by local political considerations, not the science, and not the needs of the Australian helath system.