The_Big_M

And people wonder where the greed and selfish culture comes from...

Actually, he's right, which is what makes the Police Minister's assessment even more unreasonable and unjustified. The Pacific Explorer was just refurbished in Singapore in February. After that it sailed back to Sydney, over 2 weeks before its first sailing on a domestic cruise with no stops, with pax for 3 nights on 13 March. The sailing finished on 16 March, when the 500 person gathering limit was introduced, and there have been no sailings since. There were and are no passengers or crew on that domestic cruise with coronavirus and it has been an entirely clean ship. The whole thing is a farce, showing no commonsense or fair play, but just a trumped up witch hunt because they did a bad job managing ships prior. I saw him on 7:30 tonight and he comes across as a political stooge. On top of the poor decisions so far, he was asked about the Ruby Princess debacle and where the issue may lie with Border force or Health, since nobody has admitted anything yet. He instead chose to deflect and say "there's another party - the captain" and 'he needs to investigate what role they played in the incident.' In other words, they are still looking for someone to blame as they don't want to blame the other two, but can't find anything to blame the cruise line on yet. Subsequently, he said unprompted "the premier and PM have very difficult decisions to make" trying to drum up sympathy for them. It's clear where his allegiances lie - and it's not in serving the best interests of the people.

Yes, I'm aware domestic US flights are still operating, but that isn't proof of "Airlines are still flying all over the world. " which is not true. And if you think New York is the only state with issues in the US and can be contained you have another thing coming. Are you aware Florida finally enacted a lockdown today? They didn't do that just because there might be people from New York sneaking in...

That's the issue. They're just sending them out on their own, without any plan or solution. It's the ultimate act of uncaring. And completely against maritime laws where the nearest country is meant to support them - even moreso in this case where this is its homeport.

Unlikely. He's a good business/marketing man and is willing to let things go if they're not doing well. Unless he actually saw a good return from investing further, based on past actions he'd just let it run down/sell to someone else who wanted it.

Xenophobia always exists. This just gives some people the opportunity to display it, and even sometimes attempt to legitimise it.

Actually, the cruiselines have long paid for flying their crew home to foreign countries. The only issue is the eviction and lack of attention and support locally. It's rich to want the business, but then not being willing to support the logistics of these companies. It's the same as if the government was happy with just as employees, but then when we retired told everyone they're on their own, no pension for you.

lol. Your argument doesn't make any sense... hey at least you're consistent!

Australia has focused on the services sector for some time, of which cruises are a part. Our economy is not solely goods. As part of that, the cruise sector is responsible for a large number of direct and indirect employment, services and hospitality purchases, through to maritime and provisions supply purchases locally, all benefiting Australia. I've long argued against some of the fantastic claims the cruise sector makes about its benefits, but just like my earlier comparison with the culpable lack of attention by the government to visitors bringing in the virus to now locking them up, going from extreme positions of encouraging cruising to sending them away is plain stupid, harmful - and in fact completely contrary to the "Liberal" free markets ethos.

Why would they all get ill? More than 9000 people have flown in from other countries in just the past two days, which have Covid-19. All they need to do is quarantine them just the same as others, if that's the approach to take. Something can be worked out with the cruise lines. There's really no issue. The police minister is just sensationalising the matter. Up to you the reason why.

That is comparable to other virii e.g. the flu. And with that managed with e.g. annual vaccines if there is an issue it will just be managed by evidence of having taken the vaccine. Hence why there is much work now on a vaccine. That will bring things back to normality.

That's only because of the way they handled it, not natural causes. If you look back at the stats early on, they were one of the first to the top of the charts with a big spike. However, as soon as they saw that they reacted swiftly and their 'curve' (growth) then was virtually immediately flattened. That demonstrates that it's not the environment that has caused the low numbers but their great response to it. Had they not managed it well it would have continued to grow like others. And we could have learned from them...

That's incorrect. Most airlines around the world have shut down, at least in part and some wholly. It's exceptions like this ship and its bad handling that are causing the spread.

There is no "international maritime court". And any dispute about NSW Police handling in an Australian port would be a domestic matter, hence Australian courts. If you go beyond that, that's into human rights, the UN and international tribunals but unlikely to even look at smaller issues like this, even if it fell under their jurisdiction (but it would have to be significantly worse than just refused continued access in a port).

And which test does that? Latest research is you are contagious 2 days before symptoms - if you have any at all (asymptomatic) The quick tests are only testing if you have antibodies i.e. had the virus for at least 5 days or had it in the past.