Wishing to see one's children before dying is normal human behaviour. The point of the article is actually the unreasonableness of the Queensland government, often being accused of hypocrisy when dealing with exemptions granted for entry into the state.
Absolutely not. It's a normal thing to want to see one's loved ones before one's end.
And I would even go so far as to say that I expect the children to oblige. You only have one father, and your father only die once. Barring some *extremely* dire situations, what could possibly be *more* important than that?
Unless the father has consistently been an absolute a-hole for his children throughout their life (Like my uncle did his sons).