PM calls on military to enforce new quarantine rules for returning Australians

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that all Australians who return to the country will be forced to enter a strict 14-day quarantine period in the town or city they arrive in, rather than being permitted to return to their own homes.

“States and territories will be quarantining all arrivals through our airports in hotels and other accommodation facilities for the two weeks of their mandatory self-isolation before they are able to return to their home,” he said today, following the latest national cabinet meeting which took place this morning.

“If their home is in South Australia or in Perth or in Tasmania and they have arrived in Melbourne, they will be quarantining in Melbourne. If it’s in Sydney, it will be in Sydney. If it’s Brisbane, and so on.”

The new measures have been agreed upon by all states and territories and are expected to come into effect at midnight on Saturday.

The Australian Defence Force has also been called in to assist the states and territories in carrying out compliance checks on those who are supposed to be in self-isolation. The PM added: “I thank the ADF for their great support in turning up to this task.”

The new measures for arrivals come two weeks after the government announced that all people arriving in Australia from overseas would have to spend a fortnight in self-isolation.

Since then Australia has closed its borders, while a number of states and territories have also closed their borders to domestic travellers, requiring anyone who enters to adhere to a two week self-isolation period. Now, only Australian citizens and permanent residents, and their close relatives, are allowed to enter the country.

At the time, the PM said that the drastic new measure was due to the fact that 80 per cent of the country’s coronavirus cases could be attributed to someone who has come from overseas or had direct contact with someone who’s come in from overseas.

A travel ban has also been issued by the government to all Australians, banning them from travelling internationally unless absolutely necessary.