A New Zealander living in Melbourne says she finds charges at the border saddening, but she's not surprised.
On Wednesday the Government announced its proposal to charge New Zealanders returning temporarily more than $3000 for managed isolation.
The minister in charge of managed isolation and quarantine, Megan Woods, is seeking Cabinet approval to charge $3100 per person in a room, $950 for each additional adult and $475 for each additional child sharing the room.
Lauren Jones, who is living in Victoria where COVID-19 has made a dramatic resurgence, admits she saw it coming.
"It's disappointing but I can't say I didn't expect it," she told Newshub.
Despite her disappointment Jones says she's glad the Government is being lenient in some cases.
"I'm thankful that they're allowing some people to waive the payments for certain financial or hardship reasons like if they're coming back for a funeral or something like that."
Victoria is currently in the grips of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak which has sent the state back into lockdown. On Thursday more than 700 new cases of the virus were confirmed and 13 more people died. There have been 105 deaths from coronavirus in Victoria.
Jones says the situation is surreal as cases continue to rise.
"[I heard] there was more than 700 cases yesterday and I just thought 'surely that can't be right?'"
She told Newshub the lack of clarity is challenging.
"It kind of gets you down, because we're not really sure where the end point is, if there is one, and how long this is going to go on for."
