By Janet Grogan
I’m wearing this shirt on behalf of my son and the other 37,000 Australians currently stranded overseas.
While tennis players from around the world are being welcomed to our shores, taking up quarantine rooms in hotels, seemingly circumnavigating the waiting lists and restricted flights, our citizens are left wondering when their nightmares will end.
Many, like my son, have been unable to work while overseas. They have had to use all of their savings, superannuation and rely on the help of family and friends. Many will be in debt for years to come.
There has been little help from Federal or State MPs. They seem to see these people as numbers. The few that have recognised the problem are both surprised and shocked when they realise that our Federal Government has nothing to offer these Australians stranded abroad.
The much lauded Repatriation Flights do not apply to many of them, as my son and his friends can attest to while stuck in Canada. They roll their eyes when yet another generic email arrives advertising flights from Los Angeles. This is not much use when you are in Vancouver.
Even when you think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, this can so quickly be eclipsed. My son has just learnt that his connecting flight through Tokyo (due to arrive 4TH February) has been cancelled, and may not reopen until April. I wonder what the Prime Minister would do if it was his flight, or his family’s?
When you said they’d be back by Christmas, Mr Morrison, which year did you mean?
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