Senator Matt Canavan says he is morally opposed to leaving Australians stranded in India. 

It puts him at odds with his own party as well as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt.

The federal government has banned flights from India until May 15 as the country’s COVID-19 crisis deepens.

“This is Australians we are talking about … this is Australians stranded in another country, and I think we have an obligation to help Australians in distress,” he told Scott Emerson.

“I cannot believe the risk is that great to this country that we cannot work out some kind of quarantine arrangement even if they are special arrangements for this high risk, that we couldn’t help Australians come home.”

He said planes were sent to Wuhan to bring Australians home at the start of the pandemic.

We should be helping Aussies in India return not jailing them. Let’s fix our quarantine system rather than leave our fellow Australians stranded.

— Matthew Canavan (@mattjcan) May 2, 2021

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