Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is perhaps a question of nomenclature more than anything else that Senator Wong is raising. We are talking about doing flights on a case-by-case basis—as I have clearly outlined to the Senate—as will support Australians to return home. Indeed, I have also outlined the many Australians who have been able to return home in recent weeks. The government has been explicitly clear in relation to our travel advice. I think that is also a very important aspect of the information we have consistently provided to Australians. On 9 March, for example, we advised Australians to reconsider taking a cruise. On 13 March, we advised all Australians to reconsider the need to travel overseas. On 17 March, we advised Australians overseas who wanted to return home to do so as soon as possible. On 18 March, we raised our travel advice to level 4: 'Do not travel'.