Australia has returned to being a convict nation

It must be nice to be Shane Warne. Shane was one of the 22,640 citizens The Australian Border Force granted permission to leave the country between March 25 and July 31. 

The 69,310 people who were denied permission in this time are people like Donna Burton, an Australian woman who was forced to forfeit her $2,000 (£1,100) airfare to London and not see her only daughter be married after the government did not approve her exemption to travel overseas.

Perhaps if Donna were a better cricket commentator, she’d have been allowed to leave the country.

That’s the relationship Australians have with the government right now concerning how we can travel abroad. It is not an open choice, as citizens of the UK have. We must apply for permission, and three out of every four applications are rejected. 

These travel bans puts Australia on par with Belarus, Namibia and the Ivory Coast for restrictions on international travel. Even New Zealand, famous for its draconian lockdown at the outset of coronavirus in a single-minded elimination strategy, only goes as far as advising New Zealanders not to travel.

The message is clear, the Australian government knows the right decision for its citizens, far more than they do.