Australia allowing visits to friends and family?

[PippaPegg]

Prompted by watching a Hillsong live broadcast presented from someone's home with her adult daughter sat at the other end of the sofa. "We are social distancing" they said and I thought what on earth? First Google result for Australia lockdown rules is the Guardian so think fairly reliable..

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/15/can-i-visit-my-family-parents-coronavirus-australia-lockdown-rules-covid-19-restrictions-nsw-victoria-queensland

Why are Australia doing it this way and UK is not?

Allowing people to visit in own homes seems sensible given plenty of people are doing it anyway. Might cut down on the curtain twitching?

I'm mystified since not being allowed to visit close friends and family is such a cause of misery for so many.

[BriefDisaster]

I think its probably 'give people an inch and they take a mile' type thinking.

If you tell people they can visit houses then there will be houses full of people.

I think all the time, we are staying at home, my parents are staying at home, I'm sure the risk to any of us is tiny but all it takes is everyone to think that and it all starts to fall apart.

Hopefully after 12 weeks we can visit....

[nex18]

In my opinion this is the first thing that needs to be lifted. Especially as you say OP many are doing it anyway and seeing that just makes it so much harder to tolerate for those who aren’t.

[pjani]

This is true for my family in QLD. They have very few cases and very few deaths comparatively. They are in a completely different place in the ‘curve’ to the UK.

[Loopyloopy]

Aust numbers are much lower than the UK, and don't appear to have any untraced community spread currently.

[Sennetti]

might as well go the full hog and have everything back to normal if you do that!!

[janeskettle]

Well, you're not really supposed to do any non-essential travel in my state (NSW), so family gatherings aren't OK at all.

A big push over Easter to keep people at home, and not have family get togethers.

But we are not in the same position the UK is - for reference, we've had about 68 deaths so far in total.

If anyone's gonna push it though, it's gonna be Hillsong. Probably think God protects them from viral infection. I really do hope they are not having get togethers with people who aren't in their families and who don't normally live with them.

[Nitpickpicnic]

Different Aussie states are imposing different rules, for a start.

And Australia’s CV-19 numbers are remarkably low. There seems to be a high rate of obedience to lockdown measures, which is working.

No country with as many cases and deaths as the UK could surely be talking about loosening the contact rules?

[trappedsincesundaymorn]

I think it should be allowed under (proven) exceptional circumstances, for families to be able to be together.

[janeskettle]

In NSW there are compassionate grounds to visit family members.

[puffinandkoala]

A friend of mine in another country (not Australia, in continental Europe) had friends over. She has a garden with a back gate so they came in through the back gate and sat at one end of their garden and she sat at the other but they were close enough to be able to have a conversation.

Seems fine to me, but would be against the rules in the UK.

[Reginabambina]

In practice people are mostly visiting family rather than friends from what I can see. There are limits on how many people can meet up which includes on private properties. The external border is closed and some states have closed their internal borders as well. In some states there are no new cases of community spreading recently (only cases coming from overseas/interstate). Some states still have schools open as well. Testing rates are very high and the healthcare system is better as well. Basically it’s in a completely different position to the U.K.

[Derbygerbil]

Australia is far less badly affected than the UK.... The death rate is around 100 times lower. The UK will likely relax it’s lockdown we’ll before it reduces to Australian levels.

[mynameiscalypso]

I agree that this will have to be one of the first things lifted - if they don't lift it but start, for example, reopening schools and some shops, people aren't going to see the logic for banning seeing family and friends and do it anyway. Far better to have the lifting of those restrictions controlled so it's easier to tell the impact rather than just having people ignore them because they don't make sense.

[AvenueQ]

It's the same in Germany
I don't think it's true at all that allowing that is equal to giving up completely.

[bluetongue]

I’m not visiting family but that’s mostly because they are vulnerable or in another state. If rates stay as low are they currently for next few weeks in my state I might visit my parents in their back garden.

As others have said the rules differ from state to state (and even the Police struggle with them at times).