Scott Morrison says international quarantine facility at Toowoomba isn’t ‘stacking up’
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has delivered his harshest criticism yet for the Palaszczuk government’s proposed quarantine facility at Toowoomba.
QLD Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Queensland’s proposal to build an international quarantine facility near Toowoomba just isn’t “stacking up” Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said, in his harshest criticism yet of the state government-led idea.
Mr Morrison, in Brisbane for the Queensland leg of the post-Budget sell, also slammed the quality of the Queensland proposal as “chalk and cheese” compared to the detailed, costed version put forward by Victoria.
The 1000-bed quarantine facility, to be built on Wagner-owned land near Wellcamp Airport just outside Toowoomba, was first floated months ago and has been criticised by the Commonwealth for lacking in detail.
“The problem with (Toowoomba) is, we’ve never actually had proposal details — when you compare what’s been put forward by the Victorian Government, it’s chalk and cheese,” Mr Morrison said.
“We still couldn’t get straight answers on whether this proposal in Toowoomba was about replacing hotel quarantine or supplementing hotel quarantine, so there was just not enough detail, not enough answers to the questions that you needed to properly assess.”
Praising the Victorian proposal and speaking generally about other proposals the government has received, Mr Morrison said “you can’t just sort of throw a photo on the ground at a map and say that’s a proposal”.
“That’s not something we can respond to,” he said.
Mr Morrison also revealed the government was in discussions with the NT government about using Bladin Point, a former detention centre, for international quarantine.
The federal government already has a $513.5m agreement with the NT government for the latter to run the 2000 people per fortnight Howard Springs quarantine facility.
More Coverage
Australian-first dual vaccine to win over the hesitant, compromised
A combined Covid-19 and influenza vaccine is being trialled in Queensland in the hope it will protect people who otherwise cannot have, or are hesitant about, another type.
‘The biggest public health threat of our times’
Experts say instances of self harm linked to social media use are at virus epidemic levels, labelling it “the biggest public health threat of our times”.