Family of boy stuck in NSW never asked for exemption says Qld CHO

The family of a three-year-old Queensland boy stuck in NSW with his grandparents because of border closures had not previously approached authorities for an exemption to enter the state, Queensland’s chief health officer says.

Dominique Facer’s three-year-old son Memphis has been living with his grandparents near Griffith for eight weeks after visiting in July and she had said Queensland Health did not consider the case “of a compassionate ground”.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she saw the case in media reports on Thursday, responding: “We’ve now been able to sort that all out.

“Of course he’s been given an exemption. We wouldn’t leave a child in another state, but we have to be asked to be able to give an exemption.”

Dr Young said the boy would need to be accompanied by an adult and fly to where his parents live, near Hervey Bay in the state’s south-east.

That adult would then need to immediately return to NSW while the boy’s Queensland household undertook 14 days of quarantine. Brisbane Times sought additional comment from Ms Facer.

Less than an hour before, amid controversy about a two-week pause on new and returning residents’ ability to enter Queensland and the arrival of a charter flight of NRL families this week, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the handling of the case and others involving cancer patients was a “profound moral failure”.

On Thursday morning, Ms Facer said Memphis had been asking her on the phone in tears “to come and get him” after the trip to his grandparents, near Griffith, before the border was closed on July 23.

The Queensland government announced on July 22 it had declared all of NSW a hotspot and would shut the border from 1am the next day.

“He needs to come home to his mum and dad,” Ms Facer told radio station 2GB. “Thankfully, his grandparents and his little village have been keeping him amused and just trying to keep him in good spirits.

Three-year-old Memphis was separated from his mother Dominique Facey due to the border closure. Credit:NINE

“Often he rings and he wants to come home and he asks me to come and get him. It’s so hard to tell my son ‘I can’t come and get you, darling, I’m not allowed’. Basically, I’ve just got to wait until we find what happens with these border closures and if an exemption gets accepted.”

She claimed Queensland Health told her “it’s not of a compassionate ground”.

Memphis’ grandmother Alex told the radio station they would drive him to the border town of Goondiwindi if he was allowed to isolate at home rather than ending up in hotel quarantine.

She said they can’t tell a three-year-old “he’s not allowed” to go home because “then it might be that he thinks his parents don’t want him”.

The boy’s grandfather said they lived “in the middle of nowhere” in the bush and Memphis had not been near anyone else.

Ms Facer, from her home in Howard, told Nine’s Today show she would be willing to have police check on her in isolation every day.

“I’m not going to move, I’ll do anything and everything I possibly can just to get my son home, it’s cruel.”

LNP Opposition Leader David Crisafulli had earlier quizzed Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in question time on the snap decision and Ms Facer’s inability to get an exemption on compassionate grounds to bring her son home.

“I’m advised that the exemptions unit have spoken to his parents,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “And they are … processing and talking to them about that exemption.”

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