New travel rule means Australians living overseas must apply for exemption to leave 

A jogger runs past the Sydney Opera House at dawn in Sydney in July 2021. It was decided Australia’s largest city Sydney will remain in lockdown for another four weeks due to a growing Covid-19 cluster. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP

Australian citizens who live overseas might not be able to return home under new travel restrictions being introduced today.

Permanent residents living abroad will now have to apply for an exemption to leave the country.

It's hoped the new rule will stop the spread of Covid-19, but campaigners have said these new rules will separate families and prevent Australians from returning.

New rules imposed

Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales, has said that officials have to curb rising infection rates.

"Unfortunately, there are still pockets of people who think this is not a serious illness, who don't believe that they need to follow the health orders and that impacts everybody. 

"Moreover than anything else, it's the way this virus spreads and the way this virus moves," said Ms Berejiklian. 

Australian residents living overseas have previously been allowed to come and go freely but this is no longer the case. 

What's more, it is extremely difficult to challenge a legal directive issued by the Australian health minister.

Police tape is seen at a lock downed apartment building at Devitt Street in the south western suburb of Blacktown in Sydney  in July 2021.  Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP

Sky News Australia reporter Danica De Giorgio has said citizens are not able to challenge the move. 

"It is legal? Yes, it is. Nobody can challenge the health minister's direction. And even under international law, Australia doesn't have a Bill of Rights-meaning that no citizen can actually challenge the health minister's decision," she said. 

The Australian government nonetheless is facing questions about the legality of the new Covid-19 policy. 

Professor Kim Rubenstein is a citizen law expert at the University of Canberra, and she believes there may be a case to answer over the legislation. 

"The explanation the Australian government has provided is in relation to quarantine. 

But the issue is about leaving the country, not coming back into the country. 

"And so this restriction does not sit well with the biosecurity act itself," she said. 

New South Wales, the most populous state in the country, recently expanded its lockdown restrictions as it attempted to stamp out an outbreak of Covid-19 driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant. 

It comes as concerns have grown that the virus has spread from Sydney into the surrounding countryside-despite the city now entering its seventh week of lockdown. 

New South Wales reported 324 cases in the past 24 hours, close to the state's daily record. 

In total, 37,009 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the country widely praised for their response to the virus last year. 

Now, however, the country is struggling to get its population vaccinated after a slow take-up of the vaccine.