On 18th March 2020, The Australian Governor-General declared that a human biosecurity emergency exists on the grounds of a threat to public health.
The federal government is restricting travel for the purpose of “limiting the spread of the virus,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. Australian’s can’t exit the country and any people coming into the country are required to adhere to quarantine directions.
The Biosecurity Act 2015, when declared, “gives the Minister for Health expansive powers to issue directions and set requirements in order to combat the outbreak”, effectively “run the country“.
“This is the first time these powers under the Biosecurity Act have been used.”
The emergency has repeatedly been extended on the advice of the Minister for Health and Aged Care for 3 month periods.
In-country aspects of the pandemic control measures, including border control, has been hand-balled to the States. Each state has thus coordinated by enacted their own State of Emergency.
“This is a once-in-100 year type event, we haven’t seen this sort of thing in Australia since the end of the first World War, but together we are of course up to this challenge,” states PM Scott Morrison