The Reality of Living in Australia and Covid

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Until very recently you just printed out a scabby bit of paper that was your 'permit to enter' and showed that and your PCR test at airport check-in.

But now Border Farce - aka the 'Black Shirts' - have introduced a DPD or digital passenger declaration for which you need an 'APP' - whatever that may be.

And if you don't complete your DPD you will be 'subjected to long delays' on arrival and face possible $10,000 fines.

Seeing that from the 17th all that you will really need to get in is an international vaccination certificate it strikes me as just another bit of authoritarian bullsh1t .

And like our fancy new quarantine stations the DPD is - as they say - a few days late and a few dollars short.

I'm not disagreeing with you, El Ping, but rather adding to your comments. So happens that my marina has several vessels left by foreign cruisers, who exited back to their homelands after much frustration in Aus.

So pardon me while I add a little recent history:-

* about four months ago (I'm not exactly sure of the date), the geniuses at Home Affairs introduced a mobile phone app, called Australia Traveller Declaration or ATD. Deal was that ATD would replace the paper Passenger Declaration given to each aircraft passenger on their way to Aus. I've a couple of foreign cruiser acquaintances who used ATD to enter Aus about 3 months ago.

* about a month ago (I'm not exactly sure of the date), the ATD died. Blow me down. I was in the midst of telling a foreign cruiser to download the ATD and he surprised me saying the ATD was not in the app shop for his particular mobile phone. I checked said app shop and confirmed he was correct. And found the DPD instead (and another app whose name escapes my aged brain at the moment). Now get this:

- one foreign cruiser couple downloaded and installed the DPD and starting 5 days before their travel created a DPD account and went through the acrobatics.

- of course, the cruisers had to fill out the paper Traveller's Declarations (it's a Legal Document, the fools in black shirts all say);

- landed in Aus. No one in Aus Border Force wanted to see their DPD apps on their handphone. They just wanted to see the dinkum original paperwork (vax certificate, this form, that form, proof of this, proof of that).

- another foreign cruiser couple will be inwards to my marina and their vessel in about 3 weeks.

So if you're patient, in early May I'll be able to report on:
[1] whether the DPD is still in use or replaced by Yet Another App;
[2] whether the ABF care about the DPD or just want to see paperwork; and
[3] whether all of these games are just a waste of the money of the Tax Payer of Australia and the time and effort of anyone who might mistakenly think that Aus is welcoming, smart, and so on.

As the cynics say: any nation that did not allow Aus citizens to enter or leave during the first stage of a pandemic (but now seems to care not at all about daily deaths or new case numbers in the tens of thousands) - but was fine with Aus politicians and ex-pollies and a handful of celebrities doing whatever they wanted - has more than one problem.

[El Pinguino]

My late January experience.
At LAX they were going down the line of punters queued up for boarding passes.
Wanted to see
1/International Vaxx Cert - which was on my phone.
2/PCR test - which was paper and in my backpack.
3/ Whatever border permit was in vogue at the time which was on my laptop which had about 8% on the batteries. ( I can no longer find it and forget what form it took).

I thought I had already done all this when I started my trip 24 hours earlier.

They then gave me - quite literally - a scrap of paper with three ticks on it which I showed to the man handing out boarding passes. This was all happening in the so called 'boarding lounge'.


I also had a Victorian permit - sigh.

Anyway on arrival Tulla it was straight through a smart gate and I didn't deal with a human until after I had picked up my bag.
That was the bloke who looks you up and down and decides whether you are getting a cavity search or not. He took that little old fashioned arrival docket, asked me a question about yellow fever, and released me.

[fxykty]

Our experience with officialdom since arriving last August has been painless and the Australian Border Force people we have dealt with via email, phone, VHF and in person have all been professional and friendly. Calling them ‘black shirts’ is very disrespectful if not offensive and if that’s how you dealt with them I suppose that’s what you got back. Bummer. We had to quarantine for two weeks but that wasn’t unexpected, though we had applied for an exemption. Oh well, it gave us time to study cruising guides, create MBTiles for OpenCPN, and learn about Dan Murphys.

Funny enough, when I was confirming before I left New Zealand the category of arrival that I fell into as a non-resident Australian wanting to sail to Australia I was told by several ABF that they couldn’t stop me from arriving and all I needed was the standard advance notice of arrival form. It was probably a bit easier at the time than arriving by plane. Other than because of a shortage of quarantine spaces, were Australians ever prohibited from arriving?

Our first contact with ABF via phone on arrival in Australia just before midnight was a bit grumpy as we arrived 12 hours earlier than we’d declared a week earlier and they wouldn’t have a team ready for us until late next morning. Could be because they needed ABF (2), Biosecurity (1) and QLD Police (3) to greet us? The clearance in was easier than some of the ones we’ve had in various South Pacific island countries.

Regarding apps, we’ve got the QLD, NSW and TAS check in apps on our phones - all have worked as advertised on both Android and iPhone. Although we only ever bothered with checking in in NSW once - removed as a requirement just after we arrived in the state. I guess we can delete them now?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

... But now Border Farce - aka the 'Black Shirts' - have introduced a DPD or digital passenger declaration for which you need an 'APP' - whatever that may be...

If you cannot use the mobile app [lication*], you can submit your DPD using the DPD online form
➥ https://dpd.homeaffairs.gov.au/

A mobile application, most commonly referred to as an app, is a type of application software designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer. Mobile applications frequently serve to provide users with similar services to those accessed on PCs.
➥ https://www.techopedia.com/definitio...ion-mobile-app

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Our experience with officialdom since arriving last August has been painless and the Australian Border Force people we have dealt with via email, phone, VHF and in person have all been professional and friendly. Calling them ‘black shirts’ is very disrespectful if not offensive and if that’s how you dealt with them I suppose that’s what you got back. Bummer. We had to quarantine for two weeks but that wasn’t unexpected, though we had applied for an exemption. Oh well, it gave us time to study cruising guides, create MBTiles for OpenCPN, and learn about Dan Murphys.

Funny enough, when I was confirming before I left New Zealand the category of arrival that I fell into as a non-resident Australian wanting to sail to Australia I was told by several ABF that they couldn’t stop me from arriving and all I needed was the standard advance notice of arrival form. It was probably a bit easier at the time than arriving by plane. Other than because of a shortage of quarantine spaces, were Australians ever prohibited from arriving?

Our first contact with ABF via phone on arrival in Australia just before midnight was a bit grumpy as we arrived 12 hours earlier than we’d declared a week earlier and they wouldn’t have a team ready for us until late next morning. Could be because they needed ABF (2), Biosecurity (1) and QLD Police (3) to greet us? The clearance in was easier than some of the ones we’ve had in various South Pacific island countries.

Regarding apps, we’ve got the QLD, NSW and TAS check in apps on our phones - all have worked as advertised on both Android and iPhone. Although we only ever bothered with checking in in NSW once - removed as a requirement just after we arrived in the state. I guess we can delete them now?

My views were formed last July when - between security and the departure lounge at Tulla - I was waylaid by one.
He was one of a group of maybe six just standing idly by when he spotted me striding purposefully past and broke from the scrum.
'Where are you going?' Now that was a bit of a no brainer as the only two international flights leaving in the next six hours were both going to Auckland - I guess he didn't get the memo.
'Why are going there?' 'Because I choose to' 'You must have a reason!!!' and so it went.
Stupid little piece of 20 year old pigmy poo.

Next time there they were wandering around with masks worn under the nose. That would get them sacked at LAX - they keep on making announcements to that effect over the PA.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by GordMay

If you cannot use the mobile app [lication*], you can submit your DPD using the DPD online form
➥ https://dpd.homeaffairs.gov.au/

A mobile application, most commonly referred to as an app, is a type of application software designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer. Mobile applications frequently serve to provide users with similar services to those accessed on PCs.
➥ https://www.techopedia.com/definitio...ion-mobile-app

Thank ever so much for that info Gord I had no idea.
Do you have any idea how well these - how you say - 'apps' work on the Alto Plano or in Peruvian Amazonia? About as well as bog standard wifi - thats how well.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by GordMay

If you cannot use the mobile app [lication*], you can submit your DPD using the DPD online form
➥ https://dpd.homeaffairs.gov.au/

Nicely done, Gord.

The point I was trying to make is that one cruiser couple coming into Aus to re-occupy their cruiser had done all that (both the online part using a PC and the process with the app on a mobile phone with live selfie - as the dummies at ABF call it).

But after arriving at BNE international, the ABF were not interested in looking at the app or even checking that they each had a DPD account, with much the same information, presumably in a digital database controlled by the ABF. No, all that ABF wanted was to see was physical documents: printed and signed forms, printed vaccination certificates, passports, documents proving the veracity of their claim to have property (i.e. a cruising sailing boat) in Australia, and so on.

Was not just that cruising couple. Every non-Australian on their flight received the same treatment.

[Wotname]

For any cruiser entering Australia by air to (say) join/rejoin a boat, expect the unexpected when dealing with the ABF.

In addition to the examples above, a cruising acquaintance flew into Sydney last week from SE Asia.

He tried vainly to get someone / anyone to check his digital identity and covid status or his physical fistful of 'necessary' documents. Barely opened the paper passport and then was shoved out of the airport.

YMMV.

[El Pinguino]

And also - I'll give you the drum - if the only flight on offer in July 2021 was to Kabul I would have packed my board shorts and a flagon of gin and been on the next flight.
Think 'cabin fever' on a grander scale.

From a post above 'Were Australians ever prohibited from arriving?'
Yes - from India when Delta first turned up.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Our experience with officialdom since arriving last August has been painless and the Australian Border Force people we have dealt with via email, phone, VHF and in person have all been professional and friendly. Calling them ‘black shirts’ is very disrespectful if not offensive and if that’s how you dealt with them I suppose that’s what you got back. Bummer.

Bewdy for you, fxykty!

I've been travelling in and out of Australia for at least the past 47 years (if I have my math right), crewing on ships, as master of our own cruiser, and as a passenger on scheduled flights.

Multiple trips many of those years. For work (obviously as crew; but also as a passenger on flights and in both cases wearing either a company uniform or a version of a business suit and in the latter case sometimes as employee of an Australian govt department charged with managing the foreign relations of Australia and carrying the appropriate ID) and for pleasure.

I think it's safe for me to say that my best experiences with what was the Australian Customs Service and Immigration Service and now the Aus Border Force were when they effectively ignored me.

The worst experiences were when they did everything but cavity searches, taking around 4 hours (with no toilet break, no refreshment).

I can not think of one instance in which Aus Border Force treated me in what I think would qualify as a "professional and friendly" manner. Not one.

My best experiences were when they focused on other passengers and ignored me. My worst were the four hour inspections.

And here's a story from a former (now retired) permanent Secretary of an Aus Federal Govt Department. I know him personally and have the story from him.

He returned from one govt mission overseas and was, as I've described, waved through and ignored. He mentioned that experience at a meeting of Deputy Secretaries of that Department. In hindsight he reckons that one or more of the Dep Secs made a phone call. On his next arrival into Aus, also from a govt mission, the Customs Service and Quarantine Inspection Service gave him the full 4 hour treatment.

There is one and only one good reason that ABF now wears black. They want appear to have the authority to subject people to coercive violence. They want to intimidate. They choose to look and behave as thugs.

[El Pinguino]

Anybody who wants to have a job where you carry a gun should not be given a job where you carry a gun.
Anybody who wants to have a job where you wear a black shirt should not be given a job where you wear a black shirt.

[RaymondR]

They could be just messy eaters and management doesn't want the ketchup stains to show??

[JPA Cate]

Alan, about the time it changed from Customs to Border Force, we were checking out or in (so many times it's hard to keep track), and the Customs men with whom we spoke were not happy about the change to Border Force, which he claimed was something forced by the US, and probably related to Homeland Security issues in the USA.

Jim and I fortunately have also had good relations with the Customs Service.

Ann

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

There is one and only one good reason that ABF now wears black. They want appear to have the authority to subject people to coercive violence. They want to intimidate. They choose to look and behave as thugs.

And won't remove their black kicker boots
Yet have socks for the dogs.

We had one inspection where they couldn't figure out how to open the fridge so instead of asking, broke the catch
Never told us, found out to late as we were cleared out
Had to fight with the fridge door opening for the entire passage.

[Allied39]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Alan, about the time it changed from Customs to Border Force, we were checking out or in (so many times it's hard to keep track), and the Customs men with whom we spoke were not happy about the change to Border Force, which he claimed was something forced by the US, and probably related to Homeland Security issues in the USA.

Jim and I fortunately have also had good relations with the Customs Service.

Ann

LOL, so yeah, they behave in the manner they do because forced to by the big bad US. I think not, it comes all too natural for them.

It's always been a problem in aus, a little authority and they make nazi's look calm. And that is spoken after a great many interactions, not just opinion.

If others have had different experiences...lucky you.