Three weeks ago, after boasting the program had been described as “gold standard”, the Premier barred international flights from landing in Victoria when the new British COVID-19 strain leaked into the community.On Thursday, Mr Andrews refused to say when overseas arrivals would be allowed to fly directly back into Melbourne, declaring he was still waiting on health advice about the best path forward. He is expected to face questions about the issue at Friday’s national cabinet meeting amid growing frustration among other state leaders who are picking up the slack — as they did last year when Victoria’s quarantine program closed for months because of the deadly second wave.Victorian federal Liberal MP Tim Wilson — who has pushed for more Australians to be allowed to return home — blasted the Premier’s refusal to reopen the quarantine hotels.“Any politician that is prepared to actively deny citizens access to their own country has shown they are prepared to put unconscionable and naked populism ahead of the rights of Australians and demonstrated they are not a leader,” Mr Wilson said.On February 9, Mr Andrews said if Victoria’s quarantine system was “anything other than one of the best systems” then he doubted very much other leaders across the country “would have agreed to copy it”.Days later, after plunging the state into a five-day lockdown, Mr Andrews announced he would build a new outdoor facility because of the “wildly infectious” British strain, saying a “cold, hard discussion” was needed about slashing the number of arrivals.International flights have not landed in Melbourne since February 13, even though Victoria was supposed to be accepting 1310 arrivals a week, compared with NSW, which is taking up to 430 every day. On Thursday, Mr Andrews said he could give no timeline for flights to return.“The reason for that is we’ve asked our medical experts to look at what the impacts of their areas of concern are,” he said.“I know it’s inconvenient for people, but the inconvenience involved in that pales into insignificance when you think about wildly infectious, very easily transmitted virus, a changing virus, a changing challenge, and the prospect of further lockdowns.“I want to try to avoid that at all cost.”tom.minear@news.com.au
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