When Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the "temporary pause on travellers from India entering Australian territory if the passenger has been in India within 14 days of the person's time of departure" he made it clear criminal sanctions would apply.

The fourth paragraph of the one-and-a-half page press release stated: "Failure to comply with an emergency determination under the Biosecurity Act 2015 may incur a civil penalty of 300 penalty units ($66,600), five years imprisonment or both".

He went on to say "the government does not make these decisions lightly. However, it is critical the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine systems is protected and the number of COVID-19 cases in quarantine is reduced to a manageable level".

Then, as the strength of the opposition to criminalising Australian citizens who were merely trying to escape from a highly dangerous situation by returning home became apparent, the tone began to change.

By Tuesday Australians were being told the criminal penalties were just a byproduct of the invocation of the Biosecurity Act and it was highly unlikely anybody would be fined or sent to jail.

"These sanctions have been in place now for 14 months and we haven't seen the extremes of those sanctions being required ... I think it would be remote, a very remote circumstance, that would see them imposed in these circumstances," the Prime Minister said from Beef Week in Rockhampton.

Come Wednesday and the situation had changed again. The Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, directly contradicted each other in back-to-back interviews on breakfast television.

Ms Anderson opened the batting by making it clear that as far as she was concerned fines and imprisonment were still on the table.

When specifically asked how the threat to jail Australians for simply trying to come home from India "sat with her" Minister Anderson replied: "That's a provision of the Biosecurity Act. It's been in place for some time now. Would I like to see those sanctions applied? Clearly not. And the best way for that not to happen - as I've just said - is for people to not get on those planes".

Then it was Mr McCormack's turn. His response was that: "nobody is going to be jailed. The PM has made this quite clear".

So, which is it? Australians, particularly Indian-Australians either trapped on the subcontinent or with friends and families trapped there, have every right to be feeling dazed and confused right now.

Not even three of the most senior members of the government have a clear idea of what is going on and what the official line should be.

This stands in sharp contrast to the way much of the rest of the world, including the USA which introduced Indian travel restrictions on Tuesday, are treating their citizens.

The American position is that while US citizens are free to return home most non-US citizens who have been in India within the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter the United States. Some exceptions will be made, however.

Given the opposition to its actions, and that it cannot say what additional benefit the punitive approach will deliver over and above the suspension of flights, the government's position is untenable.

It should drop talk of fines and jail altogether and deal with this crisis by using other, more publicly palatable, means.

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