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Australians stranded overseas 'aren't just numbers, it's people's families'
Gannawarra’s Sue Bottcher wants people to know the 30,000 Australians stuck overseas aren’t just numbers, they’re somebody’s family – including a granddaughter she’s yet to meet.
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Sue’s daughter Kate, son-in-law Andrew and 11-month-old granddaughter Beatrix are booked on a flight home from the United Kingdom in September, but the Australian Government’s decision to halve overseas arrivals has thrown the young family in limbo.
In preparation for their flight home, Kate and Andrew gave notice to their employers and have given up their lease.
But a week later, the devastating announcement came.
“Our jobs are finishing up and we had someone looking at our house last week; you just don’t know if you’re going to be jobless, homeless, and have no flight home,” Kate said.
“It’s been a really tough 16 months anyway but then you feel like you get everything sorted and we felt we were doing everything right.
“We booked these flights a long way in advance with a travel agent known for getting people home, with an airline that books to the (overseas arrival) caps.”
Kate married Englishman Andrew Slater two years ago and the couple moved to London.
They were planning to move back to Australia in March last year, when Kate was 16 weeks pregnant, but then the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Five months later Kate had Beatrix alone in hospital in London, as the pandemic wreaked havoc in the UK.
“It’s the little things that make it really hard,” Kate said.
“Because Bea’s our first child, I think you always have a picture in your mind of your parents and family there for those important milestones.
“One of the hardest things is knowing this is 11 months we’ll never get back. My family will never hear her say her first words or see her start to crawl.
“I know people say ‘she’s so young, she won’t remember’, but being new parents at any time is really challenging; mentally it’s taken a really big toll on us, because I’ll remember.”
The decision in early July to halve overseas arrivals down to little more than 3000 a week was made to “manage the pressure on quarantine facilities due to the increased risks posed by the Delta strain of the virus”, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
It is in place until at least August 31, with a plan for National Cabinet to review the numbers by the end of August.
“The airlines are unlikely to do anything about flights until they know what the caps are, despite the fact the Prime Minister did say it was likely they would be in place until the end of the year,” Kate said.
“Our flight probably will be affected, but we won’t know about it until sort of mid-August.”
Kate said the perception that everybody who needed to be home was already home and anyone still overseas was “out having a jolly or have actively come overseas”, just wasn’t the case.
“For us, it just wasn’t appropriate to come home and then it wasn’t affordable,” Kate said.
“And then finally it was affordable and safe and now we’re back in the same situation where if we do get cancelled and we have to book another flight, we’re back to the point where flights aren’t affordable again.
“If we’ve spent every cent we have, where does that leave us when we do get home?
“The point we’re at now we probably would spend all our money to get on a flight, because we’ll probably end up doing that anyway by not having a job and still paying rent while we wait for a new flight.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by her mum Sue.
“I want people to realise these aren’t just numbers or faceless people; it’s actually people’s families,” Sue said.
“When people say, ‘they made their choice” and “they could’ve come back sooner’, well that’s not exactly true.
“When you’ve got a young family, you can’t just pay $50,000 to get back. That’s just not really something most people can cope with. That’s a deposit on a house, just to get home.”
Kate and Andy are both fully vaccinated and are booked into hotel quarantine in Adelaide. The whole trip home will cost them about $30,000.
They looked into repatriation flights but were told it wasn’t suitable with a young child and the short notice they’d be given.
“I would’ve liked the government 16 months ago to have some foresight and set up quarantine facilities that were safe and appropriate,” Kate said.
“It feels like reducing the caps is a kneejerk reaction to a situation they could’ve done something about.
“Sort quarantine out and let us come home.”
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