Broadcaster Neil Mitchell has accused the Australian government of ‘selling its national dignity’ by allowing Chinese students to bypass the coronavirus travel ban.
Foreign students trying to fly from the Chinese mainland to Australia to study can travel via a third country – thereby staying outside China for the required two weeks.
Western Sydney University also told its students last week it would subsidise $1500 in travel and accommodation costs for them to travel through a third country.
Travellers are pictured wearing protective face masks at Brisbane International Airport on January 29. Broadcaster Neil Mitchell said Australia was ‘selling its national dignity’ by allowing Chinese students to get around the travel ban
Speaking on his 3AW Mornings radio show, Mitchell said Australia was ‘kowtowing to China’ by allowing students to get around the ban.
‘We need Chinese businesses, but at the moment we are selling out our national dignity, we are selling out our principles. There is no national pride,’ he said.
‘We’ve got to choose between what’s right and what makes a dollar, and at the moment the dollar is winning.
Mitchell also accused the Australian government of celebrating China’s record on human rights.
”Let’s celebrate their atrocities”, that’s what we’re doing. “Let’s celebrate their abuse of human rights,”‘ he added.
He also referred to the news that Australian swimmer Mack Horton’s old school – Caulfield Grammar in Melbourne – had shelved plans to name a new swimming pool complex after him.
Mitchell said the travel ban was in place for a reason and Australia had to choose ‘between what’s right and what makes a dollar’
NEIL MITCHELL’S CORONAVIRUS TRAVEL BAN RANT
We say we’re a proud country. We say we stand up for ourselves, don’t bow to anybody – well, nobody but China.
Australia is into a full on cultural cringe now, kowtowing to China.
It’s based around the coronavirus and money. We don’t want to offend China and risk losing their students, their market, their buying power.
We need Chinese businesses, but at the moment we are selling out our national dignity, we are selling out our principles. There is no national pride
We’ve got to choose between what’s right and what makes a dollar, and at the moment the dollar is winning.
Potentially, that threatens our health.
We’ve allowed students to get around the travel ban and come here regardless
Western Sydney University is even giving those students $1500 each so they can go through a third country transit to get around the travel ban
Let’s celebrate their atrocities, that’s what we’re doing. Let’s celebrate their abuse of human rights
None of this is aimed at the Chinese people. I am criticising their government, I am criticising our government, I am certainly criticising the Mack Horton decision.
Two out of those three criticisms would have me locked up in China and never heard of again.
‘Caulfield Grammar stood with the cheats, all because of a dollar! They’ve got a campus in China and they’ve got Chinese students, so decency ran second,’ Mitchell said.
Horton refused to join Chinese rival Sun Yang on the podium at the swimming world championships in South Korea last year, and previously labelled him a ‘drug cheat’ at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson also slammed Chinese students for exploiting a legal loophole to sneak back into Australia.
She called for universities to be liable if other students catch the disease, saying officials only care about ‘money from foreign students’.
Western Sydney University (pictured) told its international students it would subside the cost of airfares and accommodation to allow them to reach Australia through a third country
Politician Pauline Hanson (pictured on the Today show on Monday morning) has also slammed Chinese students for exploiting a legal loophope to sneak back into Australia
In the space of two days on Friday and Saturday nearly 1,500 Chinese students used the exception in government rules to fly to Australia.
The Australian government’s ban on those coming from mainland China was extended last week until February 29, affecting an estimated 65,000 Chinese students.
The ban can be dodged though by going through a country which does not have a travel ban on travellers from China – including Thailand, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.
The University of Adelaide is meanwhile offering a care package worth about $5000 to about 3000 Chinese students.
The package includes a 20 per cent discount on semester one tuition fees and up to $2000 towards airfares which they can access only once the travel ban is lifted.
It also offered online study help including videos of lectures, peer networking support and library resources so Chinese students who cannot be on campus by the March 26 start date, so can keep up with their courses remotely.
AUSTRALIANS WITH THE CORONAVIRUS
NEW SOUTH WALES: 4
January 25
- Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.
- Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.
- They are being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital and are in stable condition.
January 27
- A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.
- The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.
- She is being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital.
VICTORIA: 6
January 25
- A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.
- The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.
- He is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne’s east.
January 29
- A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.
- He became unwell on January 23 – two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
- The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre. He was assessed as being well enough to stay at home.
January 30
- A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus.
- She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.
- She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
February 1
- A woman in her 20s in Melbourne is found to have the virus
February 22
- Two passengers taken off the Diamond Princess cruise ship test positive
QUEENSLAND: 5
January 29
- Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national wass diagnosed with the virus.
- He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital.
January 30
- A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition.
February 4
- An eight-year-old boy has been diagnosed coronavirus. He is also from the tour group where the other Queensland cases came from
February 5
- The case was found in a 37-year-old man, who was a member of a group of nine Chinese tourists in quarantine on the Gold Coast
February 6
- A 37-year-old woman has been diagnosed with coronavirus from the same travel group that flew to Queensland from Melbourne on January 27
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 2
February 1
- A Chinese couple in their 60s who arrived in Adelaide from Wuhan to visit relatives are confirmed to have coronavirus.
CHINA: 2
January 30
- Two Australians have been confirmed as having the virus in Wuhan itself. Australia has raised the travel alert level to ‘do not travel’ for the city of Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak – and for the entire Hubei province.
- Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says unless people have contact with someone who is unwell and has come from that part of China, there is no need for current concern.
JAPAN: 15
- As of February 15, 47 Australians are among 219 confirmed cases of the coronavirus contracted on board Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama.
- Two more Australians who were on board tested positive after they were evacuated to Darwin on February 22
QUEENSLAND: 4
- Four Australians test positive for coronavirus after being evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship
- Two Queensland women, aged 54 and 55, tested positive for COVID-19 and will be flown to Brisbane for further treatment.
- Earlier a 78-year-old man from Western Australia was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth . His wife will travel with him but then be isolated at home for two weeks.
