Entering Australia from overseas was like returning to a "police state" says a Launceston man who travelled to Canada for the birth of his granddaughter.
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Mark Wells was granted an exemption to leave Australia for the birth of his first grandchild late last year after applying three times.
Mr Wells' daughter, who is a permanent resident of Canada, didn't have any family support for the birth outside of her husband.
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"There was no way that, one, I was going to not support her when I knew that she desperately wanted some family there to be with her," he said.
"Neither was I going to miss the birth of my first grandchild that was important to me."
Mr Wells said arriving in Canada was a completely different experience to arriving in Australia.
"Getting into Canada was a dream," he said.
"I basically rocked up to the border control people - they asked to see evidence that my daughter is a permanent resident in Canada and evidence that I was her father. So I showed them her birth certificate and her permanent resident card, or a copy of it, and they basically said 'welcome to Canada'.
"[They] asked if we had procedures in place to quarantine at home for the 14 days which I assured them I did and that was it."
He said when he got back to Australia is was like landing in a "police state".
"We sat on the plane for a good 45 minutes waiting for a quarantine officer to arrive. Then we were eventually told that we could disembark the flight and we were met with medical teams that asked us all a billion questions about our health," Mr Wells said.
"Then we were marshalled into a second area, whereby we were told we had to wait there, we collected our bags and had to wait in another area without being told where we were going in terms of hotels - army everywhere, police everywhere."
Mr Wells said despite the two week quarantine period in Canada and Australia, and the costs associated with his trip, he would absolutely do it again.
"It was an amazing experience. It was almost as good as being there for when my own daughter was born in the first place," he said. "Obviously I wasn't able to go to the hospital because its restricted, but for me, meeting the baby when they came home and knowing I was there to support them both, it gladdened my heart."
A spokesperson the Health and Aged Care Minister said mandatory quarantine was a key pillar of Australia's response to the pandemic.
"The Australian Government takes advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee in regards to quarantine requirements. The AHPPC are regularly reviewing all recommendations and requirements in relation to the evolving nature of the COVID-19 outbreak," the spokesperson said.
"Modelling has been undertaken which shows a significant risk that people would be infectious with the virus in the community with reduced quarantine time."