On Tuesday morning’s Today show, host Karl Stefanovic clashed with PM Scott Morrison over the latter’s controversial travel ban on Australians returning from India.
The ban has been labelled as racist by multiple commentators and members of the public, with numerous public figures – including conservative commentator Andrew Bolt – criticising the choice. At the time of writing, #ScottyTheRacist was trending on Twitter in Australia.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement on Saturday that anyone returning from India would face up to five years in prison and a hefty $66,000 fine.
Morrison appeared on the Today show to defend the restrictions.
"I'm not going to fail Australia, I'm going to protect our borders."
Scott Morrison has defended the government's India travel ban after Aussie cricket great Michael Slater lashed out saying the PM had "blood on his hands". #9Today pic.twitter.com/rbhUzZxLdD
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) May 3, 2021
During the interview, Stefanovic said the choice to jail and fine returning Australians was “incredibly heartless.”
Morrison then said that he thought the “likelihood of that occurring was pretty much zero.”
In a particularly tense section of the interview, Stefanovic said Morrison had shifted away from what his government had told the public about the ban.
Morrison replied, “No Karl, we haven’t had a shift, how you’re reporting it is a shift,” to which Stefanovic replied, “I’m sorry, didn’t you have a press conference over the weekend where you stipulated that Australians coming home, if they violated that rule, would be thrown in jail or fined? Did you not say that?”
Labour Leader Anthony Albanese has also criticised the ban, saying that “Australia has an obligation to our citizens, to people who are Australians.”
“The government’s got to justify how it is that the figures from India are similar to what they’ve been in the past from the UK and the US, but we haven’t seen these sort of measures.”
