Originally
posted by
iScode:
Complete segway (sorry bug feel free to delete) What's your thoughts on kiwis living overseas having to pay for their own quarantine if they currently want to return home to our beautiful country? Seems to be a lot of push back from expats.
My thoughts are if you deserted your country to pay a foreign govt tax you should expect to have to pay for the right to return. In saying that I cant understand why anyone would to leave this country in the first place (not aimed at you, and no offence meant, just a personal opinion.)
Nah, no offence at all mate.
I don't have any problem with being charged to return. The Government can't afford to continue funding the quarantine for every returning Kiwi and, considering how well the country is doing with COVID, it's unsurprising that a huge number of expats are trying to return.
But I can afford it. I left NZ for the sort of salary where I can comfortably afford to pay $3,000 as an unexpected cost. I'm unsure how I feel about the cost being demanded of people who can't afford it, though. Not all of those people will be voluntarily moving home - some will have found themselves without jobs or without income for such a sustained period of time, and will find themselves ineligible for the sort of welfare support that their host countries might offer to their own citizens/residents.
We don't have to look far to know that, before COVID, Kiwi's who lost their jobs in Australia were not eligible for any financial support - regardless of the years they've spent paying taxes.
Because I have the money and I have a family that I have to pay for, I would like the option to either choose the level of accommodation I'm expected to spend two weeks in, or at least have the option to choose an AirBnB to rent for the period. I'll happily abide by all quarantine and isolation requirements, including check ups by the relevant authorities. Though I get that ballbags have fluffed that up by lying to health authorities, trying to escape and generally just being a bunch of fluffs, so I'm not super hopeful that'll happen.
But, yeah. I'm not mad. The Government needs to draw a line in the sand and decide when they're not longer financially responsible for returning Kiwis, and people need to recognise that it doesn't help to return home and instantly be a drain on the public purse.
I'll be home in December, if everything works out okay. Hopefully quarantine restrictions will have ended by then because I'd hate to spend Christmas locked in a hotel room. Though, if I get come home.. Well, that's the main thing.