1. I am now getting reports of mini-rebellions happening in Backpackers Hostels in Sydney. Guests can't afford to pay b/c lost job & no access to Convid-19 payments. They are refusing to leave, getting threatening with operators.

2. Hostel operators in a crazy connumdrum: If they kick these people out they literally have NOWEHERE to go & they pose a real threat to social distancing practices. But hostels are not homeless shelters, they obviously cannot afford to house guest who don't pay in perpetuity.

3. This is getting dangerously close to spiralling into a serious situation here in Aus. I understand policy setting are aimed at getting Temp Migrants to return home. That is a logical policy aim, and in normal circumstances makes sense.

4. But in this crisis many of the 1.1 million + temporary migrants in Aus CANNOT get home. Why? B/c flights too expensive, or borders of home country closed, or transit countries blocking travel for people w/o positive Covid tests etc. Some can & should leave. Many cannot.

5. Forget about British back packers on their GAP year. They can still get home. It is people on skilled work visas & international students etc, many who have lived here for many years & paid a lot of tax, but who genuinely CANNOT get home who are being cuaght in this trap.

6. Like the wage subsidy issue, giving these people access to welfare is mind bending in normal times, messy, expensive, and hard to deliver. BUT like the wage subsidy, in a global pandemic there is no other policy option that actually works, our hand is forced by reality.

7. If you have no job, no money, no access to welfare, and you can't leave Australia you become both destitute & a profound public health risk (b/c you can't scoially distance) all at once. @ScottMorrisonMP @AlboMP I respectfully ask you to consider this matter urgently.