A father of two who travelled to Sydney for brain surgery has been denied an exemption to get home to his young family north of Toowoomba.

David Jonsson applied for an exemption days before his procedure to remove a brain tumour.

He told Neil Breen he was contacted by Queensland Health the day after his operation.

“Their reasoning at the time, they didn’t think they were going to grant me the exemption [because] they couldn’t trust me to stay at home,” he said.

“They said, ‘do you realise your wife and kids will have to stay at home?’ And they said, ‘well we can’t trust your kids and wife are not going to leave, because they will go to daycare or school.'”

He said he has spent “hours and hours” on the phone to Queensland Health.

“They have caused me an insane amount of stress,” he said.

When he arrived at the airport in Brisbane, he received an email saying his application was denied.

He said it was “rude” to assume his family wouldn’t do the right thing and isolate at home.

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