Home Quarantine should be used for returning Queenslanders
QCCL President Michael Cope said today, “The QCCL endorses the comments by Scott McDougall Queensland Human Rights Commissioner that the approach to border exemption applications has resulted in the rights of applicants for border exemptions not being properly considered.”
“However, the fundamental problem is that there are not enough quarantine places. It is time to allow Queensland residents who have been fully vaccinated and tested negative to quarantine at home.”
We have long been concerned about hotel detention, particularly the lack of fresh air and exercise, which is in our view a breach of the Human Rights Act. Allowing home quarantine will improve people’s welfare.
“In our view detention must always be a last resort. Vaccination and testing should make it unnecessary to detain people in hotels or other facilities”.
Proposals to use facial recognition technology do raise concerns. However, it would appear that what is proposed is very similar to passports at airports, in that a photo of a single person is to be compared to the face presented to the phone.
We do not oppose that so long as the privacy issues are addressed by extending the privacy provisions recently enacted for the Covid Check in app to the quarantine app and requiring that any data collected is deleted immediately the quarantine comes to an end
The experience of Ireland is informative[1]. From February to August this year fully vaccinated people were allowed to quarantine at home. Now they have reached a high level of vaccination arrivals who are fully vaccinated do not have to quarantine at all
Queensland residents in our view have always had a right to return to this State. Whilst the government has been entitled to restrict that right in the circumstances of the pandemic vaccination reduces that imperative. This is particularly so where the process for obtaining exemptions is both arbitrary and opaque.
“QCCL has received complaints from people who have been given no reasons for the refusal of the application. This is unacceptable. People told why a decision is made are more likely to accept it. This is recognised in the Judicial Review Act, which entitles applicants to a statement of reasons”.
“QCCL also calls on the government to create a system of review of border exemption applications. We note that following its review of hotel quarantine Victoria introduced a system of independent detention review officers who review all aspects of a person’s detention and provide a report to the Chief Health Officer. This could be extended to border exemptions as well”
ENDS
For further information contact Michael Cope President QCCL on 07 3223 5939 during office hours and at all times on 0432 847 154
23 September 2021
[1] https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/a6975-mandatory-hotel-quarantine/#your-questions-answered