Gold Coast MP Stuart Robert locked out of Queensland, says more hotels should be used for quarantine
A Gold Coast Federal Minister says he been left “stateless” after being blocked from Queensland and is urging Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to use the Glitter Strip’s “hundreds of hotels” for hotel quarantine.
Gold Coast
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A GOLD Coast Federal Minister left “stateless” and blocked from Queensland is urging Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to use the Glitter Strip’s “hundreds of hotels” for re-entry.
Employment Minister Stuart Robert was among untold numbers of Queenslanders and Gold Coasters told on Wednesday that he would have to wait until noon on September 8 to return.
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The Queensland State Government has put a two-week pause on anyone coming in after revelations its 22 quarantine hotels across the state were full.
Mr Robert revealed his stranded status on Sky News, telling host Kieran Gilbert it wasn’t about him or MPs but thousands of other hard-working Queenslanders: “But how many other thousands of Queenslanders have? How many other small-to-medium enterprise business owners? How many Australians working or Queenslanders working outside their state received that? And suddenly, they’re going: what? I’m stateless.
“I’m locked out of my state until 8 September. I haven’t told my wife yet, by the way. Yeah, it’s extraordinary,” Mr Robert said.
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He added: “Now, I understand their 22 quarantine hotels are full, according to the Premier. Well, there’s hundreds of hotels in the Gold Coast empty, so how about the Premier use those? And of course, in quarantine, there’s currently only 1800 overseas, there’s 3600, give or take, of domestic travellers in those hotels. You can’t not have your own state’s people back in.”
Asked by Mr Gilbert if he conceded her two-week pause on anyone coming back in, even for quarantine, would be a popular with state voters, Mr Robert said: “I don’t think it will be popular at all.
“The Premier has just said to Queensland residents: ‘you’re not welcome home’. Does that mean I get a rebate on my rates, Kieran?
“At what point does the Premier say: ‘I know you live here, but you can’t come home’ and gave citizens two hours’ notice? And it’s got nothing to do with cabinet ministers getting a note. It’s got everything to do with thousands and thousands of other Queenslanders travelling who just got told you can’t come home.”
On the Gold Coast, the Voco hotel in Surfers Paradise had recently dropped its status as a quarantine hotel and reopened for general public use, including its bar and cafe.
But it has been shut this week, appearing to now be back in the quarantine pool.
It was reported on Tuesday that the state’s hotel quarantine system was at capacity and authorities were struggling to cope with an influx of people from locked down states wanting to relocate as well as Queenslanders returning home.
About 5300 people are in hotel quarantine.
Originally published as Gold Coast MP Stuart Robert locked out of Queensland, says more hotels should be used for quarantine
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