Constituency Question - Overseas Travel

CONSTITUENCY QUESTION – OVERSEAS TRAVEL.

Wednesday, 11 November 2020.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (13:42):

My constituency question is to the Premier, and I ask: when will the State Government allow overseas Victorians, including many of my constituents, their right to return home?

Thousands of Victorians are stuck overseas. Their lives are in limbo. In fact, more than 29,000 Australians are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as wishing to return to Australia.

Victorians have a right to return home.

As Blair has written to me:

I am … currently trapped overseas in Russia. I have been here since March unable to obtain flights home …

Katarzyna has also been written to me:

… I am currently stranded in Poland, unable to return home …

And has Greer has written on behalf of her brother:

The financial and mental strain of the immediate situation my brother now faces … is enormous.

These voices are pleading.

They feel stateless, and they know this Labor Government has turned its back on them.

The Premier must recognise that our fellow Victorians have a right to return home.