Australia’s Chinese community is divided over a fresh round of travel restrictions as some question the politics behind the public health measures.
The federal government requires travellers to record a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of departure from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.
Medical experts have labelled the rules unnecessary.
Elena Collinson, a manager at the Australia-China Relations Institute, said the testing requirement was understandable but would have an impact on tourism and business ties, particularly in the lead-up to lunar new year.
“It is difficult to deny that there is some politicisation at play given the chasm between political action and medical advice,” she told AAP.
The comments were echoed by Peter Low, a retired business figure from Brisbane’s Australian Chinese community.
“My personal view is that they are overreacting. Why single out Chinese?” Mr Low said.
“It’s similar to back when COVID first started – the Chinese were singled out and we copped a lot of flak, a lot of racial discrimination.”
Chinese Australian Forum president Simon Chan said the travel rules were not unreasonable as there was a lack of information from Beijing about the outbreak.
He said Chinese travellers would also have more confidence in flying knowing they were less likely to catch COVID while in transit.
“You don’t want to have a new variant coming in and then find out afterwards, it’ll be too late,” he told ABC radio.
Peter Ho, an honorary president of the Queensland Chinese Forum, initially thought the decision was political but told AAP he came to understand concerns held by global medical experts about a lack of information.
Kirby Institute associate professor Stuart Turville said it was too early to know if an descendant of the Omicron variant would bring more serious illness and hospitalisations.
“There is a lot of hysteria on social media saying this is the next big one,” Dr Turville told AAP.
“Until the data is in hand, it’s just crystal ball gazing.”
There were no issues with compliance when the rules came into force on Thursday as Health Minister Mark Butler defended going further than measures suggested by the nation’s top medical advisor.
“This modest, sensible measure that’s been taken out of an abundance of caution is going to prove no hindrance, no barrier to that resumption of travel at all,” he told reporters.
Mr Butler said the government hoped the test requirement would be temporary and many other countries had implemented similar rules.
“It’s really important that the rest of the world have as much information as we possibly can get about this fast-developing COVID wave in China,” he said.
China’s foreign ministry has slammed the travel restrictions despite having the same requirement for entry.
Bendigo Chinese Association president Doug Lougoon said members of the community he’d spoken to were more concerned about the high cost of travelling to China as return airfares reached $4000.
“They’d be more worried about the cost of airfares rather than the imposition of a COVID test before they return,” he said.
© AAP 2023
