Yahoo Lifestyle 
Government slammed as Rita Ora takes Aussie quarantine spot
The government is being slammed by Labor MP’s and Aussies online after it emerged that UK pop star, Rita Ora, who recently broke the UK’s strict lockdown with an illegal birthday party, has entered the country and been escorted to a 14-day hotel quarantine.
The star, who is in the country for her latest gig as a coach on The Voice arrived on Australian soil on Monday, where she was immediately taken to a Sydney hotel for a 14-day quarantine.
The decision to allow the How To Be Lonely singer into the country has causes a furore, as thousands of Aussies are stranded abroad in heartbreaking circumstances as the government maintains their strict 4,250 weekly cap on international arrivals.
Currently, it’s estimated around 37,000 Australians remain stranded abroad.
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On Twitter, many couldn’t help but point out the inconsistency of the government’s decision, and the fact that a spot for Rita was a place not reserved for a returning Australian.
Labor MP Kristina Keneally was one of the most vocal detractors of the decision, telling The Guardian it amounts to Prime Minister Scott Morrison ‘leaving Aussies behind’.
“There are still 40,000 Australians stranded overseas,” she told the publication. “Every celebrity who takes up a place in quarantine is a place denied to a stranded Australian.”
Others couldn’t have agreed more.
“Rita Ora gets an exemption at the expense of Australian citizens who are desperate to come home, on the verge of mental health breakdowns and financial ruin,” journalist Bevan Shield’s wrote in a thread discussing the matter.
One Twitter user called the decision ‘disgusting’, while others called it ‘heartbreaking.
“@RitaOra can get into Australia for a TV show but friends can’t see their newborn grandchild...” one flabbergasted commentator wrote. “F**ked up priorities.”
“Why would Australia let a COVID rule breaker into their country?”
The Department of Home Affairs tells Yahoo they do not comment on individual cases.
The uproar comes after Rita broke lockdown advice multiple times in the UK, in an earlier lockdown leaving her primary residence in London for a country retreat against public health advice.
More recently London metropolitan police have claimed the star’s team bribed a London restaurant owner with £5000 pounds to host her illegal 30th birthday party on November 28.
The party was attended by 17 people, during the height of Britain’s November lockdown period.
Adding further fuel to the fire was the later revelation that Ora should have been self-isolating after a trip to Egypt at the time the party was held.
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