29 January 2021

Enquiries continuing over Parliament House COVID-19 breach, group stayed in ACT for three days

| Dominic Giannini
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Storm Clouds, windy weather Parliament House Photo: Michelle Kroll

A tour group of banned travellers from Sydney visited Parliament Hosue on Australia Day. Photo: Michelle Kroll

Enquiries are continuing into a tour group who travelled to the ACT to visit Parliament House, despite coming from the Cumberland local government area.

Until 3:00 pm today (29 January), non-residents from Cumberland were not permitted to enter the ACT under COVID-19 Health directions.

ACT Policing believes the group travelled to the ACT on Saturday (23 January) and camped at Corin Forest until Tuesday (26 January) before visiting Parliament House and returning to Sydney.

There was confusion yesterday as to whether the group had spent one day or three in the Territory.

READ MORE ACT ends travel ban as Sydney records 12th day with no local COVID-19 transmissions

“Enquiries relating to other places the group may have visited are continuing,” an ACT Policing spokesperson said.

“Fines or official cautions may be issued by police to anyone that does not comply with current Public Health Directions.”

Parliament House has since undergone a deep clean while 7News reported that the group also visited the War Memorial.

ACT Health said the Chief Health Officer had advised that the potential breach is considered to be low risk from a public health perspective.

The sentiment was shared by Chief Minister Andrew Barr who rated the risk to the public as a “0.5 out of 10”.

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