Thats fair enough too I'd say.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the 16,000 Australians who left the country after "do not travel" advice was issued are unlikely to "find themselves high on the list" to be returned.
The Prime Minister told radio broadcaster Alan Jones this morning he was "bewildered and frustrated" when he read the figure, which was released by the Department of Home Affairs yesterday.
Can't be bothered re typing the info so a blatant copy and paste;
There has been a lot of criticism about 16,000 Australians who left Australia after the government WARNED against it, and amazement that 3,800 Australians left after it was actually BANNED. These have been represented as irresponsible tourists travelling on reduced airfares (the word tourist often being applied to all of them), and it has been implied that we will have to pay to bring them all home.
A lot of this is media hype (I know because I have been in this sort of situation). Nearly a million Australians travel overseas every month normally, so the 16,000 is a small percentage (1.6% of normal approx.). Some were idiots without question, but I would be surprised if that was more than a few thousand at most. Firstly - like me in the past - nearly 400,000 Australians LIVE overseas. I did so for 12 years, and I periodically came home to visit friends and family. In a situation like this, one heads "home", which for so many Australians is outside Australia. Secondly, approaching one million Australians normally fly out of Australia each month for various purposes (nearly 100,000 for business purposes), so 16,000 is really miniscule and a much larger proportion of these than normal could have been for business (including some from government). These were exempted from the warning (those who had urgent business reasons). Then as for the "amazing" 3,800 Australians who left after travel was finally banned (not just a warning), they all had to get a permit from government to do so (so were probably overseas residents still here, and travellers on urgent business, or had compassionate grounds for travel - whatever, the government considered their reasons valid, and none would have been tourists). Lastly, DFAT warnings to not travel to certain countries exist ALL the time for a number of countries, and usually have to be ignored for business purposes - some of us have jobs that require us (and Australian politicians) to travel to those countries. Much of the time these have included parts of countries like Russia, much of central Asia etc. - and if you have family still living in Lebanon or the Ukraine, you are hardly likely to never visit them again.
Not only will we be unlikely to have to pay to have them all return, it has also become obvious that many needing help overseas who are tourists, flew out BEFORE even a warning was given, and have been trying since to return.
The blame game again - we are in trouble so lets look for a scapegoat (with the media and Credlin-types driving the feeding frenzy). I have no trouble with charging anyone who can be shown to have truly been an idiot, but not others, and in practice it is cheaper not to have an investigation into each individual case but instead just give them a seat on one plane flying Australians out of any overseas country where many of them need help. Even if they have to pay for their stupidity, I would still give them a seat - stupidity should not carry a death sentence (as it may well, in parts of the Third World).
