Victorian residents who had been in the “red zones” of the northern beaches were given an extra 24 hours than NSW residents on December 21 to return home, and they were allowed to quarantine for 14 days in their homes rather than in hotel quarantine.
Mr Berridge said his extreme anxiety and mixed messages from hotel staff after six days cooped up in the hotel room had led him to try and escape the hotel.
Yet Mr Foley told media on Monday there was “a message to everyone in hotel quarantine” that they should comply with the government’s rules or risk “significant fines”.
“I understand what the gentleman asserts and the facts of the matter, as they’re available to me, clearly indicate this gentleman was a resident of the Sydney red zones and unequivocally was required to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine,” he said.
“Of course we always look at how we can do things better. But I think in this case the system worked, the gentleman was properly advised, and he was ill advised to try to leave hotel quarantine. He now faces the prospect of significant fines and I would urge everybody to stay safe, to follow the rules, particularly if you are required to do hotel quarantine.”
Mr Foley refused to commit to a timeline for when Victoria would increase its cap on returning Australians but indicated it would likely be in January.
Victoria is currently accepting about 160 people per day or about 1100 per. By comparison, every week NSW is receiving 3000 returning Australians, Perth accepts 1025, Brisbane 1000, Adelaide 600 and the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs facility 500.
