The real reason Zac Efron’s younger brother Dylan was given an exemption to enter Australia

Zac Efron’s younger brother Dylan Efron sparked outrage after flying into Australia from the United States last week. 

Now the reason the 29-year-old brother of the Hollywood superstar, 33, was able to enter the country has been revealed.

Dylan was granted an exemption to fly into Australia after the NSW government estimated he would pump $2 million into the film industry.

The actor’s sibling angered Australians stranded overseas after he documented his two-week hotel quarantine, which ended earlier in the month, on social media.

The younger Efron travelled to Australia to help his brother with the production of the second season of Netflix series Down To Earth.

Labor’s home affairs spokesman Kristina Keneally quizzed Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram about the exemption at a hearing in Canberra on Monday.

‘It really set off a number of Australians who couldn’t get home for dying relatives,’ Senator Keneally said.

‘Stranded Australians were very angry about Dylan Efron.’

Mr Outram said the state government needed to prove significant economic benefit, similar to the Indian cricket tour or Australian Open tennis tournament.

‘The exemption was granted on the basis of the applicant having critical skills and was supported by the NSW government,’ he said.

‘Mr Efron’s arrival was not included in NSW flight caps and did not impact on the number of Australians that could return.’

The border force boss said the NSW submission predicted the Efron series would pump $2 million into the local film industry.

Mr Outram said an assurance was sought in writing that Efron was not taking up a quarantine space but conceded he served his quarantine in a hotel.

Dylan’s arrival incited fury from locals when he entered Australia in February. 

‘Can someone please explain why Dylan Efron is able to travel to Australia while 40K stranded Aussies are still locked out of their own country due to arrival caps and quarantine limitations?’ one person tweeted. 

‘Okay so you can travel to Australia all good, but people from NZ can’t even go visit dying relatives?’ a second questioned.

Meanwhile, another asked: ‘Why is [Zac’s] brother able to come in as a non-Aussie and we can’t see our parents for two-three years? Great..’

Australians in a private hotel quarantine group asked the same question, with one woman writing: ‘How essential was his entry?’ 

After arriving into Sydney, Dylan shared his experience in quarantine to his 634,000 Instagram followers. 

‘Pretty uneventful day, I got a great workout in which was my goal coming in… I’d say the weirdest thing that has happened is that they keep sending me milk, I don’t really know what to do with all this milk,’ he said in one clip.

‘I also hardly wore clothes today, which felt great but isn’t great if you’re shooting content or because there’s a big office building across from us and I’m sure they all know me by now,’ Dylan said in another.

Last month, Dylan told BroBible that he had planned a trip Down Under to help produce the second season of Zac’s Netflix series, Down to Earth.

‘Zac’s Netflix show Down to Earth is filming season two, so I’m going to go out and produce that again,’ he said at the time. 

Zac has been quietly living in the beachside town of Byron Bay since March 2020, after escaping the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.