Peter Dutton says the federal government “panicked” when responding to the Covid outbreak in China and was “making it up as they go along” after Labor imposed pre-flight testing for China travellers contrary to the chief medical officer’s advice.
The opposition leader’s criticism comes on top of backlash from China and concern within Labor with one government MP telling Guardian Australia the decision “does single out China” and was taken after “a strong constituent push to screen Chinese travellers”.
On Tuesday, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, accepted that the chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, had not proposed pre-flight tests but rejected suggestions the decision was political in nature.
On Wednesday the biosecurity determination was published, confirming that fines of up to $8,250 may apply to people travelling from China who fail to provide a negative test result within 48 hours of travel, with a penalty of up to a year in prison for providing false or misleading information.
The pre-flight test requirement is subject to limited exceptions for children under 12 and people with evidence from a medical practitioner of a covid-19 infection in the last 30 days.
Kelly’s advice stated that he did not “believe that there is sufficient public health rationale to impose any restriction or additional requirements on travellers from China”.
He along with state and territory chief health officers felt further restrictions were “inconsistent with the current national approach to the management of Covid-19 and disproportionate to the risk”.
Dutton and the shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, called on the Albanese government to explain “why they have ignored the advice of the chief medical officer” despite being advised “there is no new variant of concern coming out of China and, therefore, no logical reason for the restrictions they are putting in place.”
“In the absence of Australian health advice to put the restrictions in place, the prime minister must justify why he has deviated from what has been previously agreed,” they said in a joint statement.
The health minister, Mark Butler, has previously defended the decision as one taken out of “an abundance of caution”. He has referred to statements from the World Health Organization that not enough was known about the Covid wave in China.
Dutton said on Tuesday that “the most relevant health advice for Australians is our chief medical officer’s advice, as it considers all factors in the context of our nation’s health and economic position”.
“The last thing our country needs is a panicked response from a government that doesn’t have a plan and, frankly, over the last week, has been making it up as they go along,” he said.
“Chinese Australians want to return home after their holidays and need more certainty in their travel plans. Australians expect their government is prepared for situations like this; instead, we are left with chaos and confusion.”
Guardian Australia understands the decision was taken by federal Labor’s leadership group. Some MPs with high numbers of Chinese Australians in their electorate were consulted and warned against singling out China.
One MP, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was a “complex issue, with a variety of views”, including those in favour of similar pre-flight testing regimes imposed by the US, Canada and several Asian nations.
“But the consensus view from experts is we should be doing more in terms of public health policy: on air quality, risk of spread on public transport,” they said.
“There is a strong constituent push to screen Chinese [travellers] even though there is already significant spread in Australia and the variants in China appear similar to here.”
Labor MP Julian Hill said Butler had “made the right call given the extreme concern about the Covid tsunami that appears to be engulfing China and serious doubts over the veracity and reliability of data and reports”.
“That said, I’d expect the measures would be eased as soon as possible. Worryingly it does look like Covid will race throughout China which is extremely concerning for so many Australians worried about friends and family,” Hill said. “It’s important that this is in no way seen as an anti-China measure.”
China’s foreign ministry hit back at the requirement for a negative test before travel. Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that “authoritative medical experts” from different countries had said such restrictions were “unnecessary”, the ABC reported.
“China always believes that for all countries, Covid response measures need to be science-based and proportionate without affecting normal travel and people-to-people exchange and cooperation,” he said.
“China will, in light of the Chinese people’s inclination for outbound travel, resume outbound tourism to countries where conditions allow.”
Despite the backlash, business groups including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tourism and Transport Forum did not withdraw their support for the measure, although Universities Australia called for further explanation.
The Group of Eight universities deputy chief executive, Matthew Brown, said: “Given increasing international concern regarding managing Covid-19 variants, the government’s precautionary and temporary arrangements are reasonable.”
Chalmers told ABC radio the government decided to “err on the side of caution”. The treasurer defended the regime – which starts on Thursday – as “not especially onerous requirements for people travelling from that part of the world”.
The government took Kelly’s advice “very seriously” but conceded “in making the point that we need to get our surveillance efforts up, [he] was not proposing this exact course of action”, Chalmers said on Tuesday.
“We’ve been pretty clear that we take decisions that we think are in the best interest of the country, again, out of an abundance of caution, again, consistent with what a lot of other countries are doing.”
Chalmers said “how China manages the transition from their Covid zero policy to something different” will impact on supply chains because “the Chinese workforce will be affected”.
