Leaving Australia is becoming easier – still not easy, but easier than before, with the Australian Border Force (ABF) taking a slightly more lenient approach to requests by Australians to be allowed to depart their own country, while processing requests faster.
Australians and Australian permanent residents don’t have any “right” under domestic law to leave Australia – with the federal government able to control cross-border movement under the Biosecurity Determination 2020.
In international terms, that is very peculiar. New Zealanders are free to leave their country. EU citizens can leave their countries. So can Britons, Americans, Canadians and citizens of most other countries (North Koreans excepted).
Australians no – but the outlook is improving, with the ABF now approving travel requests at a higher rate than earlier in the pandemic and processing applications more quickly.
The development was reported by the Sydney Sun-Herald yesterday. The report said the ABF was now “making decisions within hours that previously took weeks”.
The chances of being allowed to travel are still not great, however. The report said a third of Australians seeking permission to travel overseas are being granted an exemption from the pandemic-related travel ban, up from 25% earlier in the pandemic.
According to the academic and research-related publication The Conversation, the ABF received 104,785 travel exemption requests between 25 March and 16 August 2020. Of these, 34,379 applicants were granted a discretionary exemption. That’s an approval rate of 32.8%, a fraction less than one third. Putting it the other way, more than two thirds of applications were denied, meaning you are twice as likely to be refused as you are to be approved.
Some exemptions are for reunions of couples. Some are family related and can be quite tragic. Some are for more mysterious reasons, like the entrepreneur recently granted an exemption to travel overseas to pick up his new luxury yacht. What the…!?
Whatever the reason, most applications by Aussies to travel abroad are firmly turned down.
It is now more difficult to leave Australia than at any time since the days of convict transportation, other than during times of world war.
An ABF spokeswoman told the Sydney Morning Herald the new higher approval rate over the past week reflected a new application portal and extra staff, which had helped clear a backlog of requests.
Applications can cover more than one person and one person can make multiple applications. The chances remain strong your application to travel overseas will be rejected – but at least your disappointment will arrive sooner. Previously, some people were forced to wait until their planned day of departure to find whether they were allowed to leave.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned recently that the resumption of international travel was “not foreseeable” and was unlikely to occur this year, drawing accusations that the restriction had turned Australia into a version of the Eagles’ Hotel California: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.
Australia’s prohibition on leaving makes any creation of international “travel bubbles” impossible. It’s easy to see why people need to quarantine for health reasons on return to Australia (at their own expense; $3000 in most cases) but how is Australia’s health compromised by people leaving?
The government has perhaps worked out that Australians leaving are likely to return, requiring two weeks hotel quarantine on arrival back home and potentially placing extra strain on Australia’s hotel quarantine system. Other countries, however, let their citizens leave – and manage it without undue fuss.
Written by Peter Needham
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