The Friends and Relatives of the Prien family urgently request the Tasmanian State Government to allow brothers Sean and Fergus to attend their father’s funeral on the 24th of November 2021.

Sean and Fergus are upstanding citizens and are serious about the pandemic. They both have received their full program of vaccination. They have been fully compliant with the Tasmanian border authorities, providing them with all necessary documentation. If they were to be allowed into the state, they would take the utmost care to minimise the risk to the wider Tasmanian community.

The border authorities have given work-arounds that are, at best, highly unattainable in an appropriate timeframe, and at worst, seem to counteract the principles of determining admission into Tasmania by hotspots/zones. It is our understanding that they were asked to consider changing their place of residence in writing and to provide evidence of living at this residence for a fortnight before. This is extraordinarily disappointing, because it should be noted that location of residence by itself offers no causal relationship to a person’s COVID status as it disregards possible thoroughfare or activity through hotspots.

They were offered this advice because realistically, the only reason they have been refused re-entry into Tasmania is because they are listed as residents of “black zones” under the state border guidelines. They have provided all possible evidence, including; recent negative COVID-tests; letters from their father’s oncologist confirming the situation, as well as other documents.

It seems that the more sensible, compassionate option, and the one with the least amount of bureaucratic labour, would be to have the government allow for the admission of such urgent bereavement cases with limitations as they see fit. Sean and Fergus were not able to meet their father before his condition suddenly deteriorated and he passed away in late October. We therefore request the Premier Peter Gutwein to make a personal exception for them so that they can at least farewell him appropriately.