Australian travel bans challenged in court

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s drastic COVID-19 strategies of preventing its citizens 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 said.

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 US).

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 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.

LibertyWorks argues that Hunt does not have the power to legally enforce the ban, which has prevented thousands of Australians from attending weddings and funerals, caring for dying relatives and meeting newborn babies.

With almost one-third of Australians born overseas and most barred from leaving the country for more than a year, a win by LibertyWorks is likely to lead to a surge in citizens wishing to travel. The three judges said at the end of Thursday’s hearing that they will announce their verdicts at a later date.

LibertyWorks president Andrew Cooper said after the hearing that he expected Australians could be free to fly again by the end of May.

“By the government’s own records, they’ve rejected 74,000 applications to travel,” Cooper said. “So we would anticipate there’d be hundreds of thousands of Australians that do want to travel.”

The challenge will be heard by Justice Michael Thawley five days before flights could potentially resume.