Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce says the Victorian government is guilty of double standards for allowing sports stars to fly in for the Australian Open, but keeping the border with New South Wales (NSW) shut.

He said it was “bizarre” to allow people to fly from countries where “the virus is raging” but not from Sydney, the NSW capital, where community transmission is “extremely low”.

 

And recent events indicate he has a point, with 'plane loads' of contestants arriving from the USA and Abu Dhabi reporting positive tests.

 

About four dozen players now are in quarantine in Melbourne and will not have the opportunity to leave their hotel rooms for tennis practice until February 1 at the earliest.