Extract from ABC News
Key points:
- The Shadow Minister for Health defended the government's decision to ban flights from India until May 15
- An audience member said her brother, a doctor in India, died from COVID due to the lack of treatment there
- Another panellist labelled the government's flight ban "unconscionable"
The nation of more than 1.3 billion people has been recording case numbers above 350,000 per day for much of the last week and is, according to the World Health Organization, responsible for 38 per cent of worldwide cases reported.
There are fears those numbers are actually much higher due to underreporting but on Q+A, audience member Farida Alvi shared the story of losing her brother, who was a doctor tending to homeless people.
She said the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in denial about the severity of the nation's COVID crisis and repeated claims they had blocked people from speaking out about the issues on social media.
Ms
Alvi then asked why the Australian government was blocking direct
flights from India until May 15 rather than doing more to bring
Australian citizens home.
Panellist Parnell Palme McGuinness, a communications specialist, ripped into the government decision despite the "double mutant" Indian strain of COVID-19 possibly being more virulent than others.
"I am so, so sorry to hear about your brother," Ms Palme McGuinness said.
"I think we need to bring people home as quickly as we can. I think it's so important for the Australian government to say these are our residents, these are our citizens … they are in trouble and we need to help them come home.
"It’s devastating that flights have been cut rather than increased.
"They need to be coming back filled with people who need help."
However, Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie said the medical advice had to be followed and flights from India paused.
"I think we're all watching what's happening in India with great concern," she said.
"We're not just sending oxygen, we're sending PPE, we're sending ventilators, a whole lot of practical support on the ground to help India through this crisis.
"We're also obviously going to remove the temporary ban as soon as possible and the Prime Minister's made that very, very clear."
She was then asked by host Hamish Macdonald why the planes sending equipment were coming back empty.
Senator McKenzie defended the decision as being based on medical advice.
"It was instigated on medical advice and it isn't the first time we have put a temporary ban on flights," she said.
In a moment of bipartisanship rarely seen on Q+A, her stance was backed Labor's Shadow Minister for Health Mark Butler.
"Can I just agree with Bridget," he said.
"The decision taken to pause flights from India was taken on medical advice.
"The scale of the crisis in India is jaw-droppingly bad but we do need to make this period [without flights] work, then build something that allows us to bring back the 9,000 people who are wanting to come home, but recognise also that that's only one small part of the [COVID] crisis."
Butler takes aim at 'former immigration minister'
Their shared view on India was in stark contrast to how the pair began the show, shooting jibes at each other over how the government handled COVID-19, especially when it came to outbreaks in hotel quarantine.
Mr Butler fired the opening salvo as he took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison for not taking control of quarantine at a federal level, referencing Mr Morrison's past as immigration minister.
"Quarantine is unambiguously a Commonwealth responsibility," Mr Butler said.
"But he has continually duck-shoved the question of national quarantine during a pandemic to state governments."
Mr Butler then called for dedicated regional quarantine facilities in Australia to avoid further hotel outbreaks.
"We have seen 14 outbreaks of COVID in the last several months in hotel quarantine, paralysing all of our major cities on the mainland," he said.
"It's beyond time for the Prime Minister to recognise this is his job.
"He's failing at it and we need a safe national quarantine system."
Senator McKenzie said Mr Butler was ignoring decisions taken on quarantine responsibilities at early National Cabinet meetings.
"It's a cute answer by Mark," she said.
"The reality is 13 months ago we had a historic grouping of premiers and the Commonwealth coming together as one nation to actually deal with the pandemic.
"And in March last year, they all made a decision … that the state governments would take control of the quarantine system in this country. They made that as a collective."
Watch the full episode of Q+A on iview
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