Australian quarantine equality?

[edlepera]

Sounds like the lunatics are running certain parts of Australia. I hope that calmer heads will prevail and the you will be freed. In America here many states are open but in other states the threat of arrest is looming on those who challenge the dictatorship ways of certain Governors.

[neverumind]

daletournier If you had said you were an AFL player you would have had no worries.
Lol
I sympathise with you , but you should see what the WA govt are up to.
Blatant extortion .

[ka4wja]

Dale, my friend,
Thank goodness things are getting better for you!

Originally Posted by daletournier

Well after 5 days and much noise we recieved emails last night granting us excemption, heading back to Sukha this morning.

I'm glad that it looks like making lots of noise has worked for you!

Such a pain in the ass, just to get home...and be able to stay on-board your own boat? Wow! I never thought it would've come to all this...
But...


But, while I found the Australian people to be really nice, friendly, helpful, etc...and I found Australia itself to be a wonderful place to visit....from your troubles (and others as well), it seems like the Australian gov't and various Australian State governments, have some crazy people working in them! (just like we do in the USA)

And yep, I'm aware that this applies to my good 'ole USA gov't as well....and many of our state gov'ts here...
I just ignorantly never thought other First World Countries had gov'ts as screwed-up as mine!


Many of us have been dealing with weird / inexplainable rules (and uncooperative gov'ts) these days, but it looks like Australia and various Australian State Gov'ts, really take-the-cake, here!


So again, congrats on actually being able to get (negotiate) a better solution!

Fair winds!

John

[NPCampbell]

Originally Posted by daletournier

I should add it wasnt just me making noise , my cell mates were definitely going hard as well.

Hats off to your perseverance. I'm curious as to what other forms of social media, etc you conveyed your displeasure to? As informative as CF may be, I'm assuming that the local officials probably didn't read your complaints here?

[SalingSue]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Congratulations. It sounds like you and the others made a good case for a reasonable objection, and the authorities were reasonable enough to listen and consider, and then to act. It's encouraging that there's at least one continent where people and their government are able to discuss and resolve a problem.

Sometimes it takes a bit of pushback to improve hastily-enacted restrictions. Good on you, then, for doing the pushing.

It also has to do with numbers, when there is one cop per 500 citizens...

It’s like cattle, a cowboy can scare, or even lasso a single head, and get the bovine to go where he wants, but if that whole herd decides it’s going one direction, you move out of its way or you get trampled.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by TabbyCat

Dale,
I sympathize with your sentiments. At least you got in - we've elected to ship our boat out of OZ rather than deal with officialdom there. Not a decision made lightly, as it will cost me a year of salary. We'll be living on rice & beans for the foreseeable future. I suspect the difference between your application and the other boat was the nationality of your respective crew?

Hi, no Dave had a travel ban exemption and Visa ,so no problem there. Also the other boat locked up with us was fully crewed by Australians.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by ka4wja

Dale, my friend,
Thank goodness things are getting better for you!
I'm glad that it looks like making lots of noise has worked for you!

Such a pain in the ass, just to get home...and be able to stay on-board your own boat? Wow! I never thought it would've come to all this...
But...


But, while I found the Australian people to be really nice, friendly, helpful, etc...and I found Australia itself to be a wonderful place to visit....from your troubles (and others as well), it seems like the Australian gov't and various Australian State governments, have some crazy people working in them! (just like we do in the USA)

And yep, I'm aware that this applies to my good 'ole USA gov't as well....and many of our state gov'ts here...
I just ignorantly never thought other First World Countries had gov'ts as screwed-up as mine!


Many of us have been dealing with weird / inexplainable rules (and uncooperative gov'ts) these days, but it looks like Australia and various Australian State Gov'ts, really take-the-cake, here!


So again, congrats on actually being able to get (negotiate) a better solution!

Fair winds!

John

Hi John, I thinks it's where we are in history, conditions are ripe for large government and bureaucracy. I read a book underway called "The Fourth Turning" its talks about history being cyclic and the conditions that create this ongoing pattern ,these academics consider us to be in what they call a fourth turning, very intetrsting and quite worrying.

Btw, we have a fellow C470 coming in next to us, Passion lV, they just crossed from Hawaii, recieved their exemption on arrival.

[Buzzman]

Call local ABC journo. Call NINE News. Call a lawyer and issue writs. GET YOUR BOAT AND NAME ON THE NEWS. There is an election looming and no QLD pollIe wants to look harsh. Go for public sympathy.

[MikadoII]

Dale - One answer - DUTTON

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by MikadoII

Dale - One answer - DUTTON

We contacted him indirectly or at least a letter was drafted and was given to him (we think) by someone connected.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by daletournier

In my last post I was accused of wanting special treatment, my argument was we arent flying From LA to oz in 12 hours, we are coming from a country that has no community transmission of Covid 19 and then spending 9-12 days at sea.

I absolutely accept people have differing views on this matter BUT I'm assuming equality means "all being treated equal?"

Below is an official complaint I've just submitted, if anyone has any advice on how I can make more noise let me know.

I will not be arguing with those that disagree with me.

"Hello, I'm writing to lodge an official complaint.

I've just arrived via my sailing vessel from Fiji. Three yachts left at exactly the same*time. We all know each other well, have all applied for a quarantine exemption asking for time at sea to count and remainder of quarantine time to be served on our vessels. We have all followed exactly the same procedures.*

SV Sukha (my boat) and SV Influencer sailed to Bundaberg we arrived on the 30th. We have been given no excemption, we are currently being held against our will in a quarantine facility at great expense* although we have come from Fiji that has no community transmission of covid and we have had three covid tests.

SV ....... literally left within minutes of us and arrived back in Australia at the same time, they have been granted an excemption and are currently just serving the remaining 3 days quarantine on their vessel.

I ask for EQUALITY.* I am an Australian citizen , I've committed no crime yet I am locked up with two police officers at my door and being forced to pay*$3,700. While my friends who have come from exactly the same place as I are not locked up and do not have to pay*$3,700!.

I will not let this matter rest, in a country like Australia I expect equality.


Please address this issue and please lodge this correspondence as an OFFICIAL* COMPLAINT.

Both Borderforce and the police here in Bundaberg are very supportive of this complaint, they've encouraged me to lodge an official complaint as this is not the first injustice they have seen regarding unfair treatment of Australian yachtsmen returning home.


Kind regards*
DaleTournier
Sv Sukha.

Who have you lodged the complaint with. The legislation governing this is QLD state Public Health Directive, whist the Federal; Government implement border control the agreement is that they will only admiot people following the state health directive. Short Story Its Palaczszuk's fault.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by SalingSue

Well that’s the choice the CEO of Australia made so

No its not - its a state Government of QLD decision

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Wotname

.... being granted the exemption - so OK, the GC ABF fellas are off the hook. This is matter of who gets the exemptions and who doesn't under similar circumstances. More power to your cause mate.

Very sadly your story is very common place and is the discrimination appears to be a function of leadership (and lack of funding) in political sphere.

I think you asked what else can be done?

If it was me, I would writing to every federal member, every state member and every senator of all parties.

After that, see what mainstream media is interested.

Nothing to do with any federal memeber and or senator, Purely a Qld Government issue.

Originally Posted by Paul L

Dale
Pretty sucky situation. My experience with Australian border force is that there are some large differences in interprataion and implementation of the regulations. For example Customs rules for Vessel in Transit goods being very different between Brisbane and Cairns. Another example is what level of termite inspection (and fees) a vessel gets based on the port of entry.

Nothing to do with Border Force

Originally Posted by Wotname

Is it????? OK I was mistaken, I understood the exemptions came from the Feds. My bad.

That makes it harder for you - election around the corner in Qld so positions are entrenched and it is hard argue with a Heath Department in the middle of a pandemic. You are between a rock and a hard place!

Yewp its an election driven policy.

Originally Posted by nfbr

Welcome to modern day Australia. This direction is not new. Inflexible nanny state is the objective. Consume, Work, Breed, Shut Up.
Good reasons not to live there anymore.

Rubbish.

Originally Posted by daletournier

Sue, I 100% agree. Free speech is extremely important, in fact it's ones duty to voice ones concerns. I have never considered myself a civil libertarian BUT this situation has been very eye opening to me. I grew up in Australia naively believing I have rights, I never once considered that Australia dosent have a bill of rights, which means I have no rights. When one is scared to speak due to risk of angering authorities then you have a problem.

This is a very slippery slope we are currently on.

So glad we dont have a so called bill of rights, we saw how that ended up for the USA

Originally Posted by GordMay

I suppose you’ve also contacted the Australian Human Rights Commission.
➥ https://humanrights.gov.au/about/contact

Unlike most similar liberal democracies, Australia does not have a Federal Bill of Rights. Instead, protections for human rights may be found in the Constitution and in legislation passed by the Commonwealth Parliament or State or Territory Parliaments.
➥ https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/...australian-law

Australian Bill of Rights Bill 2019 (withdrawn March 2020)
➥ https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019B00171

Again - nothing to do with any federal government agency - official - politician - NOTHING ZERO ZIP ZILCH.

It amazes me how little people understand about our federal system?

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Factor

Who have you lodged the complaint with. The legislation governing this is QLD state Public Health Directive, whist the Federal; Government implement border control the agreement is that they will only admiot people following the state health directive. Short Story Its Palaczszuk's fault.

We made formal complaints directly to the chief health officers office via a number of direct an non direct channels.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Factor

No its not - its a state Government of QLD decision

Factor, I'm 100% aware it's a Qld state government directive, read back through the many posts and you'll see this has been mentioned numerous times, it's also been mentioned that the police and borderforce have no power in regards to this.