The small change that could ‘vastly speed up’ Victorians returning home from NSW

3AW Drive has revealed a small change to the Victorian border permit system which might help speed up the process for stranded Victorians in NSW who haven’t been in a hotspot.

The Department of Health and Human Services is working through a backlog of applications for exemptions for Victorians who were unable to make it back home before the borders slammed shut.

On 3AW Drive, Heidi Murphy revealed a “slight tweaking” to the process.

“As of midnight last night, the Health Department has added a power of exemption that will permit entry to Victoria, to Victorian residents who seek to come home, where that resident has not travelled through an area of NSW since that area was deemed a red zone or a hot zone,” she said.

“I am going to assume that it will vastly speed up the approval process for quite a number of those applications.”

Victoria’s COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar later told Heidi they were trying to simplify the arrangements.

“If we can clearly establish their risk of contraction is very low, that makes it a lot easier to allow them to come back into the state.”

DHHS rules now have an exemption to permit entry to Victoria for Victorian residents who seek to return to their ordinary place of residence in Victoria, where the resident has not travelled through an area of NSW since that area was deemed a red zone or a hot zone.

— Heidi Murphy (@heidimur) January 8, 2021

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