Grieving family kept away
THE son of a Townsville man’s widow has called on state bureaucracies to put compassion into their Covid-19 border exemption processes, saying the system is so fixated on zero risk that “we are losing our humanity”.
Townsville man Walter Newton, 60, was killed in a horrific crash on the Bruce Highway last Friday.
His daughter Maddie Newton, a fully vaccinated nurse residing in Melbourne, has criticised the Queensland government for making the task of getting an exemption “harder than it needs to be”.
Miss Newton was denied an exemption from hotel quarantine, and flew into Brisbane on Monday morning where she will spend two weeks in isolation to grieve her dad’s death alone.
Now, the son of Mr Newton’s de facto partner of a decade, Stephanie Bagaric, has revealed he is also trying to get permission to enter Queensland from the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Nicholas Ferrante said he needed to get back to Townsville to be by his mother’s side as she grieves the loss of Mr Newton.
Mr Ferrante, who is due to get his second dose of the Covid-19 jab next week, said he understood that governments needed a set of rules to contain the virus.
“What I worry is that the system we have at the moment, the states are so fixated with having zero risk that we are losing our humanity,” he said.
“I would encourage the state governments to work together to have a (uniform) system (for compassionate exemptions).
“At the moment there is no clear path for families in this situation to be reunited.”
Walter was killed when a car veered into his lane and collided with his Ford on Friday. His son, also named Walter, is in hospital in a stable condition.
Acting Premier Steven Miles, asked about compassionate exemptions, said the chief health officer and her team were dealing with those requests “with as much compassion as they can while also ensuring the safety of Queenslanders”.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young said their ordeal was “tragic”, but stood by Queensland Health’s decision on Miss Newton’s exemption on Monday.
“To lose your father so suddenly is just absolutely awful … and we’ve spoken to her that if her brother, who is currently stable, were he to
deteriorate then we would work with her to get her out to see him.”
Mr Ferrante confirmed he had applied for an exemption on Sunday night and received a called from Queensland Health on Monday morning, informing him that his request had been “trigged” to the highest priority.
But he’s not confident of his chances of being granted an exemption from hotel quarantine.
Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto wrote to Dr Young seeking transparency around hotel quarantine exemptions.
“Queenslanders are upset because it seems that if you’re a football or movie star, or somebody otherwise considered important, you can qualify for a hotel quarantine exemption while members of the general public often cannot,” Mr Dametto said.
“This may be an incorrect perception, and if it is not the case then publishing the exemption criteria will go a long way to ending such misconceptions.”