Αssociated Press reports from Canberra that Australia’s drastic COVID-19 strategies of preventing its citizens from leaving the country and returning from India were challenged in court Thursday.
The government is resisting growing pressure to lift the Indian travel ban imposed last week until May 15 to reduce infections in Australian quarantine facilities.
A challenge to the ban by Gary Newman, one of 9,000 Australians prevented from returning home from India, will be heard by a Federal Court judge on Monday, Chief Justice James Allsop noted.
The ban was ordered by Health Minister Greg Hunt under the Biosecurity Act, which carries penalties for breaches of up to five years in prison and fines of up to 66,000 Australian dollars ($51,000).
A libertarian group LibertyWorks took its case to the full bench of the Federal Court on Thursday against a separate order under the Biosecurity Act that has prevented most Australians from leaving the country without compelling reasons since March last year.
The government hopes to maintain Australia’s relatively low levels of community transmission of the virus by preventing its citizens from becoming infected overseas and bringing variants home. Travel to and from New Zealand has recently been exempted.
Read the full report at thenationalherald.com
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