One of the most closely-watched developments recently is that Australia is now allowing the parents of citizens and PRs to enter the country for family reunions. Under the previous travel-exemption list, immediate family did not include parents, siblings or unmarried partners. At the time, the definition of immediate family for border-control purposes was limited to spouses, de facto partners, dependent children and legal guardians, and only a small number of parents were able to apply for entry. The typical example of parents being granted an exemption was when they needed to bring an Australian-citizen or permanent-resident minor back to Australia — for example, non-Australian grandparents bringing their Australian-citizen or PR minor grandchildren back to reunite with their parents.

At the time, the definition of immediate family that excluded parents and unmarried partners was highly controversial. Australian media interviewed an Australian citizen named Harjot Singh, who was born in India and now lives in Melbourne with his wife and children. His mother passed away in India last year, leaving his father alone to battle cancer. Although Harjot returned to India to care for him for several months, in the longer term he wanted to bring his father to Australia so that the family could be together. Harjot said he had applied for exemptions countless times and had been refused every time, on the grounds that “a father does not count as immediate family”. In October last year he set up a Facebook group called “Parents are Immediate Family”, and within a few months it had 264,000 members — all of them people longing to be reunited with family in Australia. They launched petitions and shared information within the group.

When Prime Minister Morrison announced last week that parents would also be allowed to enter Australia, it is no exaggeration to say that most people broke down in tears of joy. The media interviewed several people who had been stuck inside the country waiting desperately to reunite with their families, and they all said Australia’s decision was deeply humane — “Everything we’ve endured for so long has been for this day.”

Another interviewee, Andara Harryman, was born in Indonesia and now lives in Australia with her husband. Apart from her husband, she has no family in Australia. She became pregnant this year, and her greatest wish was to bring her mother to Melbourne before she gives birth next year, because as a first-time mother she still feels isolated and overwhelmed even with her husband’s help. Before the pandemic she often travelled back to Indonesia to visit her family, but the pandemic changed everything. When she and her husband were married in 2020, her parents even had to attend the wedding via Zoom.

After discovering she was pregnant, she tried to apply for a travel exemption for her mother, but was refused. She is now 38 and even considered returning to Indonesia to give birth, but that proved very difficult because she is no longer an Indonesian citizen. When she heard last week that parents would now be allowed to enter Australia as immediate family, the first thing she did was call her mother with the good news: “You can come to Australia and meet your grandchild,” she said, overcome with emotion.

Another case that caused a stir in the Chinese community involved a young man working in Australia on a WHV who was tragically left brain-dead in a car accident. Given how critical the situation was, his mother needed to get to Melbourne as quickly as possible to be at his bedside. However, she was unable to travel because of Australia’s border policy and could only see her son — kept alive on life support — through a video call arranged by the hospital. Three days after she lodged her visa application, the Australian federal government announced that, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it was restricting non-Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members travelling from mainland China from entering the country. As a result she could only wait in Qingdao until the ban was lifted. The story was later picked up by the media, and the Acting Immigration Minister at the time said, “We will give compassionate circumstances the fullest consideration possible, so that she can get here as quickly as possible without putting the Australian public at risk.” After an agonising wait of several days, the young man’s mother was ultimately granted an exemption and her visa to Australia was approved.

As well as people outside the country who want to come in but can’t, people inside the country have faced similar frustrations. After several states went into lockdown, state borders remained closed to one another for a long stretch of time. Families living across state lines were unable to reunite because of the various border policies. One Adelaide man travelled to Canberra for his sister’s funeral and then found himself stuck there, unable to return to South Australia. According to custom, he also needed to go back to South Australia so that family members who couldn’t travel to Canberra could hold a vigil. After he went public with his situation through the media last week, he has now been granted an exemption by the South Australian government and will be able to return to Adelaide this Friday. He said: “On Friday, SA Health sent me an exemption approval letter and told me to submit an exemption application to SA Police. Twenty minutes later it was approved — incredibly fast.”

There’s an old Chinese saying that the law is never separate from human feeling, and that applies just as much in Australia. Australia is well known for its strict laws, but within that strict legal framework there is still room for compassion. When policies are drafted or amended, the government also considers the needs of the public — which is why we so often see people turning to online petitions when they feel differently about a particular issue or policy. It’s not only in the border policies we’ve talked about today; even in the courtroom there are many moments where you can feel that “human factor” at work, and we’ll share more of those with you in future articles.