‘Nothing we can do if they lie’

POLICE say there’s “no system in the world” that can stop people evading border restrictions if they purposely lie, saying they can’t track every incoming passenger.

Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said 95,000 people had flown into Queensland this month alone, and crosschecking flight manifests in real time simply wasn’t possible as people streamed through airports. It comes amid public anger over how three women were able to return to Brisbane from Victoria, via Sydney, before two tested positive to

COVID-19.

A police investigation is under way, but it’s understood there were no rules in New South Wales to have stopped the women transitioning flights and travelling from Sydney on to Brisbane, where they should have gone into hotel quarantine. Mr Gollschewski said police would allege the women “deliberately deceived us – knowingly, and deliberately deceived us about where they’ve been”.

“Now there is no system in the world, unless we track people, that can tell us exactly where those people have been,” he said. “And because they transited through Sydney, the only information available to the police was the fact that they had boarded a flight in Sydney … The airlines have been very cooperative in terms of how we deal with these things, but generally speaking we can only access certain information when we’re doing an investigation for a crime that’s occurred,” he said.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mander said authorities shouldn’t be relying on an honesty system.

“It would seem that the system is broken down, when it comes to protecting the health and lives of Queenslanders we cannot rely on an honour system,” he said.