About 16,000 Australians flew out of the country in the fortnight after Scott Morrison told everyone not to go overseas, triggering calls for defiant international travellers to foot the bill for their forced quarantine when they return home.
The Australian can reveal the 16,000 citizens went overseas by plane between March 19 and 30 even though the Prime Minister gave a very clear instruction to “not travel abroad” on March 18.
In addition, 3800 Australians flew out from March 25-30 after an official ban on all overseas travel came into force on March 24 [under official exceptions].
The significant outbound travel numbers, confirmed by the Department of Home Affairs, emerged as West Australian Premier Mark McGowan considered making passengers who ignored travel advice and went on holiday pay for the hotel accommodation they must quarantine in for two weeks on their return.
He hit out at “irresponsible” West Australians who raced off to Bali, Thailand and the UK in the past fortnight.