Please help my nan get to Aus to care for my mum

Hi all, I’ve made this GoFundMe page following on from my Facebook post where people told me to set one up for donations :) anyone who donates, I honestly couldn’t thank you enough.

My nan is flying to this country to become a primary carer for my mum who suffers from an illness that I won’t go into details about based on her wishes. As soon as flight exemptions were put into place, we began applying. It took multiple goes back and forth before this was accepted. This was in June, we booked her flight as soon as possible, but the date had to be for late July in order for my nan to arrange to move countries. We were told by the department of home affairs that should hotel fees come into place at the time of her flight, we didn’t have to worry for 2 reasons: 1. Our circumstances meant we would not be charged and 2. We booked the flight BEFORE hotel fees were put into place therefore we won’t incur that cost. So we were left under this impression and never told any different.

I have spoken with multiple people at the department of home affairs, all of which give different information, and have spoken to ‘the highest up’ supervisor at the department of health today, I have only her first name if this is required, she would not provide even an email address to me.

My nan flies here next week, my grandad has today phoned the department of home affairs who have changed their minds and said we will be liable for hotel fees. We physically do not have the means to cover this cost. In speaking with the department of health, they have told me they will not budge and we are being charged this cost despite everything stated above and despite our compassionate exemption. Despite months going by with hotel costs being waived, based on compassionate grounds of my nan moving to this country to become my mums primary carer, and based on us being informed differently, they are refusing to take this in to account. I have been told repeatedly ‘this rule regarding fees came into place July 17th and is advertised on the websites and on the news’ this is true, but we were told that OUR case was different. They say only permanent residents and citizens can apply for a waiver on these fees, my nan is neither. But the governments website does also state ‘hotel cost will be at your own expense, except in cases of extreme hardship’. The supervisor that I spoke with at the department of health refused to give me any other person to speak with and told me she was the only option that I had and showed little compassion or humanity at all.

I totally agree that the tax payer should not foot the bill for hotel costs, but when it comes to scenarios like this one in which me and my family physically can’t cover this cost AND that my nan should have been in this country before this rule ever came into place, but she was not due to her application not being approved in time, I feel an exemption should be made.


The last thing I can attempt to do now is reach out publicly and ask for help.