Covid Qld: Taxpayers fund $40m hotel quarantine system for 12 people
Queensland taxpayers have shelled out $40 million to keep the state’s hotel quarantine system running while it was used to house just 12 people – and a purpose-built facility sat empty.
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Over $40m was spent keeping quarantine hotels open during a period when just 12 people stayed – while the state government’s purpose-built Wellcamp facility sat virtually empty.
The dozen who required hotel quarantine accommodation after February sparked claims from the Opposition that it would have been cheaper to buy each of them a mansion.
The state’s hotel quarantine program quietly wrapped up on June 30 after the government finalised its contracts.
Between March 31 and the end of the financial year, $13.5m was spent on hotel isolation and quarantine.
This was on top of the $26.9m spent between February 5 and March 31 this year – when the Wellcamp facility near Toowoomba came online.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli took aim at the government, claiming it would have been cheaper to buy each of the 12 people a riverfront mansion.
“When the Premier was telling Queenslanders hotel quarantine was over, her government was still funnelling money into vacant hotels because of poor planning and political games,” he said.
“To spend tens of millions on vacant rooms and hundreds of millions on a next-to-empty quarantine facility that taxpayers will never own shows everything you need to know about the Premier’s poor priorities.”
A question on notice last week revealed just a dozen people had required hotel quarantine since February 16 – when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk travelled to Toowoomba to officially open 500 beds at Wellcamp.
On that day, she revealed that the last person was due to leave hotel quarantine in Brisbane. Since then, hotels have been used to accommodate Covid-positive people who, for whatever reason, cannot stay in Toowoomba.
About 700 people have stayed at Wellcamp. The question on notice revealed that the total room costs since February 16 were $3885.
A State Development Department spokeswoman on Friday revealed the last hotel contract for emergency isolation and transit rooms wrapped up on June 30.
“Between 31 March and 30 June 2022, $13.549m was spent on hotel isolation and quarantine,” she said. “This includes payment for hotel costs incurred before that period, as hotels often invoice much later than the period of use.”
It can also be revealed the state still has a quarantine commissioner despite hotel quarantine ending and Wellcamp sitting largely empty.
The commissioner’s daily tasks include co-ordinating “an isolation system to support the pandemic response and economic recovery” and working with the Commonwealth on what its Pinkenba facility will be used for.
“The commissioner is one part of Queensland’s successful Covid disaster response,” a department spokesman said.
“The commissioner also oversees government-provided isolation. Like all disaster-response roles, how it functions is reviewed as needed.”
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