Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For at least nine months now, I've been calling for an industrialisation of quarantine arrangements, making it possible for Australian citizens to return home but more importantly for international students to be able to return to Australia and for the 10,000 skilled visa holders this economy needs to also gain access. But it can only be done with appropriate triage and the use of technology that is now available.

It adds insult to injury that in Sydney airport today testing is done for SARS COVID antigen results for those travelling to China, which they must have when they land, but we don't do the same testing on those who arrive in our nation. We need to do better. The technology is available. It's subject to a post-market review by the TGA and the Doherty institute, but this should not be delayed. It is unacceptable that we continue to cap at state level these arrivals. We need antigen testing predeparture. We need to explore predeparture quarantine. We then need antibody testing using lateral flow immunoassay on arrival for evidence of being immune to COVID, vaccinated or previously infected as well as antigen testing. No Australian citizen should board a flight to this country without antigen testing first to confirm that they are not infected. Otherwise, they should not fly. This can be done. It's not being done. Take the pressure off our hotels. Then you can have quarantine-lite for those who have consecutive negative antibody antigens. They can do around four days in quarantine, not 14. It would triple your turnover and throughput at the same cost.