Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
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Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#2I'm an Australian living abroad, and from my perspective this is consistent with the government's messaging from the beginning: "come home now or be prepared to stay were you are for an extended period of time." Unfortunate as it is, Australians were told to make a decision early last year. It's ultimately unfair to other Australians who have made sacrifices to keep Australia effectively Covid free if others who decided to stay abroad all rush home whenever things get bad in their necks of the woods.
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#3I'm an Australian living abroad, and from my perspective this is consistent with the government's messaging from the beginning: "come home now or be prepared to stay were you are for an extended period of time." Unfortunate as it is, Australians were told to make a decision early last year. It's ultimately unfair to other Australians who have made sacrifices to keep Australia effectively Covid free if others who deci…
I'd be more understanding if this was applied consistently. But for example Oz knew the tennis tournament was unsafe, yet players were flown in, likely infected on the flight and hosted while sick. If the same can't be afforded to people returning home, that's BS.
Also if people would be jailed rather than sent back, it means gov can deal with their quarantine if they have to.
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#4I'm an Australian living abroad, and from my perspective this is consistent with the government's messaging from the beginning: "come home now or be prepared to stay were you are for an extended period of time." Unfortunate as it is, Australians were told to make a decision early last year. It's ultimately unfair to other Australians who have made sacrifices to keep Australia effectively Covid free if others who deci…
Eh, I'm not entirely sure it's consistent with the spirit of citizenship though, even if it's consistent with the governments messaging.
What happens if peoples visas expire? What happens if people lose their job abroad? What happens if people's home life in Australia changes, and they have to go back to care for an elderly or ill relative? Or if your father dies and someone needs to care for your mum? "Tough shit, you chose to live abroad so stay out" is one way to handle this, but in reality there should probably be more nuance.
Even if you decided to stay abroad because you don't want to quit your job, but then the country you were working in starts to have oxygen shortages and their medical system starts failing during a global pandemic, I think this also counts as a situation where a country should be helping it's citizens rather than saying "Well sorry, you knew the risk, we offered you the option to quit your job and come back home and be unemployed, but you chose to stay there. I mean we could set up a quarantine facility but if you come back we will send you to jail instead".
They should offer some sort of pathway for getting back, even if it means sitting for 2 weeks in a government quarantine facility and having to pay for the priviledge.
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#5I'm an Australian living abroad, and from my perspective this is consistent with the government's messaging from the beginning: "come home now or be prepared to stay were you are for an extended period of time." Unfortunate as it is, Australians were told to make a decision early last year. It's ultimately unfair to other Australians who have made sacrifices to keep Australia effectively Covid free if others who deci…
Eh, I'm not entirely sure it's consistent with the spirit of citizenship though, even if it's consistent with the governments messaging. What happens if peoples visas expire? What happens if people lose their job abroad? What happens if people's home life in Australia changes, and they have to go back to care for an elderly or ill relative? Or if your father dies and someone needs to care for your mum? "Tough shit, y…
I see your points, especially with the conflict if citizenship. There will be an obligation on the government to come up with a solution, but that requires at least a small period of time for planning. I could see an island quarantine facility being established.
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#6I'm an Australian living abroad, and from my perspective this is consistent with the government's messaging from the beginning: "come home now or be prepared to stay were you are for an extended period of time." Unfortunate as it is, Australians were told to make a decision early last year. It's ultimately unfair to other Australians who have made sacrifices to keep Australia effectively Covid free if others who deci…
Yeah, nah. You are very definitely an Australian. "It's ultimately unfair to other Australians who have made sacrifices..."...that's the true spirit of Australia, right there, folks. It's not like in Crocodile Dundee. Australia is uptight and full of prefects.
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#7I'm an Australian living abroad, and from my perspective this is consistent with the government's messaging from the beginning: "come home now or be prepared to stay were you are for an extended period of time." Unfortunate as it is, Australians were told to make a decision early last year. It's ultimately unfair to other Australians who have made sacrifices to keep Australia effectively Covid free if others who deci…
Eh, I'm not entirely sure it's consistent with the spirit of citizenship though, even if it's consistent with the governments messaging. What happens if peoples visas expire? What happens if people lose their job abroad? What happens if people's home life in Australia changes, and they have to go back to care for an elderly or ill relative? Or if your father dies and someone needs to care for your mum? "Tough shit, y…
Australia awards citizenship extremely generously. You only need to be living in the country for four years (which can be as an international student), there is no income test, no employment test, no language test, no requirement to give up your prior citizenship.
The 'Australians' in India are citizens of opportunity, who were born in India and retain their citizenship there, and the sympathy for them from actual Australians is zero.
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, I'm not entirely sure it's consistent with the spirit of citizenship though, even if it's consistent with the governments messaging. What happens if peoples visas expire? What happens if people lose their job abroad? What happens if people's home life in Australia changes, and they have to go back to care for an elderly or ill relative? Or if your father dies and someone needs to care for your mum? "Tough shit, y…
I see your points, especially with the conflict if citizenship. There will be an obligation on the government to come up with a solution, but that requires at least a small period of time for planning. I could see an island quarantine facility being established.
This sort of thing has been brought up for more than a year. The federal government has shirked all responsibility from the start of this whole affair. States have requested federal support for establishing these sorts of quarantine facilities, and been rejected on multiple occasions. The federal government claims it is a state responsibility, as health is generally a state responsibility. However, constitutionally quarantine is a Commonwealth responsibility and therefore the federal government should be handling it. As a citizen overseas, states do not harbor much responsibility for my situation as I'm not a resident of said state, which is fair enough in my mind. But that means the federal government's dereliction of responsibility leaves me and many others out to dry. I'm just glad the country that invited me in hasn't been so incompetent and cruel.
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, I'm not entirely sure it's consistent with the spirit of citizenship though, even if it's consistent with the governments messaging. What happens if peoples visas expire? What happens if people lose their job abroad? What happens if people's home life in Australia changes, and they have to go back to care for an elderly or ill relative? Or if your father dies and someone needs to care for your mum? "Tough shit, y…
Australia awards citizenship extremely generously. You only need to be living in the country for four years (which can be as an international student), there is no income test, no employment test, no language test, no requirement to give up your prior citizenship. The 'Australians' in India are citizens of opportunity, who were born in India and retain their citizenship there, and the sympathy for them from actual Au…
As an Australian citizen, I have plenty of sympathy for those who have dual/multiple citizenship. They've been treated particularly harshly by both the federal government and their fellow Australian citizens. Some notes:
- There is an income test for permanent residency, which is required for most pathways to citizenship. Apart from family-stream visas which require a direct relationship with an Australian citizen, most visas eligible for permanent residency are work-related and you won't get one of those without an income test[1].
- There is an employment test, as above
- There is a language test, see the section on Language Ability[2], this has been a significant bottleneck for personal friends who speak English perfectly well
- Student visas don't make you eligible for permanent residency, let alone citizenship[2]
- Australia's community values explicitly state that dual/multiple citizenship doesn't exempt you from being Australian[3]
- Australia's pathways to citizenship (via PR, work visa etc.) are some of the most expensive and time-consuming in the world
[1] https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/permanent-resident/vis...
[2] https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/become-a-citizen...
[3] https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship-subsite/Pages/Le...
Re: Fines up to $66k or five years prison for Australians returning home from India
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, I'm not entirely sure it's consistent with the spirit of citizenship though, even if it's consistent with the governments messaging. What happens if peoples visas expire? What happens if people lose their job abroad? What happens if people's home life in Australia changes, and they have to go back to care for an elderly or ill relative? Or if your father dies and someone needs to care for your mum? "Tough shit, y…
Australia awards citizenship extremely generously. You only need to be living in the country for four years (which can be as an international student), there is no income test, no employment test, no language test, no requirement to give up your prior citizenship. The 'Australians' in India are citizens of opportunity, who were born in India and retain their citizenship there, and the sympathy for them from actual Au…
This isn't accurate.
There is a citizenship test, and as I understand it some level of English proficiency is required. The residency requirement is four years, at least one as a permanent resident. Permanent residency, depending on the stream, has its own skill, employment, and English proficiency requirements.
As for how 'actual Australians' feel, this is a complex issue with questions on a lot of axes. People's opinions are going to be varied and nuanced.