Question Time has wrapped up.
Premier to reopen hotel quarantine from this Saturday
Queenslanders stuck in interstate hotspots can once again return home and enter hotel quarantine from this Saturday. It comes after no new local cases overnight.
Queenslanders stuck in interstate hotspots can start returning home from this Saturday but only 50 hotel quarantine spaces will be initially offered.
It comes as no new Covid-19 cases were recorded in Queensland overnight while one was acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.
After being widely condemned on Tuesday for a decision which granted an exemption to NRL players' families and officials, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk this morning announced more rooms would be added as they became available.
The 50 rooms will be given to returning Queenslanders or people relocating to Queensland who have been prioritised for early entry.
Officials will contact approved applicants.
From Monday September 6, the application process will reopen to those seeking to relocate to Queensland as well as returning Queenslanders.
However, those wishing to relocate will have to prove they are genuine either with proof of employment or change of residential status.
More than 19,800 vaccines were administered by Queensland Health on Tuesday.
"Numbers in our quarantine hotels have only slightly eased so we can offer places to 50 as a start but we will add more places as rooms become available," the Premier said.
"No-one pretends that we will not face further outbreaks during this pandemic.The answer is to get vaccinated."As more supplies of the vaccine arrive we will find more ways to deliver them in more hubs."
Queensland Coalition minister Stuart Robert said the early re-opening of hotel quarantine from this weekend was “a start” but called for the Premier to reveal her Covid-19 plans moving forward.
“We still don't know the Premier's plan outside of lockdowns, lockouts and hotel quarantine for interstate arrivals,” he said.
“Last week the Premier announced more quarantine was to be built, so is the Premier's plan to quarantine forever, even with 80 per cent vaccinated?
“What about home quarantine for fully vaccinated Australians coming from interstate? South Australia is trialling right now and there is nothing stopping QLD trialling it for returning Queenslanders too.”
Updates
How will children be affected when lockdowns ease?
Former Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has asked Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to clarify her earlier calls for modelling into how children will be affected when lockdowns ease.
Ms Frecklington asked; "Is the Premier now saying that lockdowns and restrictions won't end until 100 per cent of Queenslanders are fully vaccinated?"
Ms Palaszczuk said she had asked for more investigations to be done.
"What I said very clearly – I've asked for some further modelling to be done on what happens to this cohort," she said.
"What's going to happen to the children – it is omitted from any modelling, it is omitted from any plan."
– Hayden JohnsoFormer Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has asked Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to clarify her earlier calls for modelling into how children will be affected when lockdowns ease.
Ms Frecklington asked; "Is the Premier now saying that lockdowns and restrictions won't end until 100 per cent of Queenslanders are fully vaccinated?"
Ms Palaszczuk said she had asked for more investigations to be done.
"What I said very clearly – I've asked for some further modelling to be done on what happens to this cohort," she said.
"What's going to happen to the children – it is omitted from any modelling, it is omitted from any plan."
– Hayden Johnson
More questions around NRL decision
Katter's Australian Party MP Shane Knuth has also quizzed Health Minister Yvette D'Ath about the government's decision to let NRL players into Queensland while there was a pause on hotel quarantine.
Ms D'Ath again insisted that the hotel quarantine arrangements for NRL players were separate to those of returning Queenslanders and interstate travellers.
She said the pause had allowed the government to open up more hotel quarantine rooms, with at least 50 families to be given access to Queensland from Saturday.
Ms D'Ath said the exemptions unit was dealing with an extraordinary number of requests for exemptions to enter the state amid the two week pause.
"They're very difficult decisions that they're making," the Minister said.
"They're working on those as quickly as they possibly can."
– Jack McKay
Three calls to Caboolture hotline
Opposition Health spokeswoman Ros Bates asked Health Minister Yvette D'Ath to guarantee the "Caboolture Hospital surgical crisis will not produce another Jayant Patel" – referring to the Bundaberg Hospital surgeon convicted of negligence and linked to several patient deaths.
Ms D'Ath said it was "pretty appalling" the Opposition was describing the Caboolture Hospital as one in crisis after The Courier-Mail documented a dozen people who raised concerns about their care.
"All the matters that have been raised so far have been investigated," the Minister said.
"At this time there is no finding of systemic failings."
She said a phone line established for people to raise concerns about the hospital had received three calls in about 24 hours.
– Hayden Johnson
"No evidence that Delta variant causes more serious illness in children"
Ms Palaszczuk's concern about children and Covid-19 comes despite Queensland Health indicating on August 5 that pre-school and school-age children "appear less likely to acquire the infection and make up less than 5 per cent of reported cases in Australia and elsewhere".
Queensland Health notes there is "no evidence that Delta variant causes more serious illness in children".
"The good news is the vast majority of children with the Delta variant continue to experience a mild infection," the Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service website notes.
– Hayden Johnson
Taxpayers still being kept in the dark about cost of quarantine facility
Annastacia Palaszczuk has again refused to say how much taxpayers are spending on the Toowoomba quarantine facility announced last week.
Saying she loves talking about the hub, which will be built adjacent to the airport, the Premier said it would cost less than the facility being built in Victoria and less than the Commonwealth's facility to be built at Pinkenba in Brisbane.
Pressed further by Condamine MP Pat Weir about the cost, Ms Palaszczuk cited it was commercial in confidence.
– Domanii Cameron
Research request about impacts of Covid-19 on kids
Opposition transport spokesman Steve Minnikin has asked Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk about what her government's plan is to provide a path out of Covid.
Ms Palaszczuk said she had asked for further research about the impacts of the virus on children – particularly those aged 12 and under.
"It is a serious issue that our country will face," the Premier.
"The plan has now moved to vaccinate high school students, which I fully support."
Ms Palaszczuk pointed to the US, where she said there was a "pandemic of the unvaccinated".
– Jack McKay
"We will keep our borders closed so we can keep our pubs open"
Deputy Premier Steven Miles told the House that "Queenslanders worked too hard to give in now".
He said Queenslanders had worked too hard to open up and let the virus in, even if NSW wanted them too.
"We will keep our borders closed so we can keep our pubs open," he said.
– Jessica Marszalek
Premier dodges lockdown question
Deputy Opposition Leader David Janetzki asked what the government's plan was for the path out of lockdowns and restrictions once vaccination rates reach 70 and 80 per cent.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she didn't want to see hospitals in Queensland overrun and people dying because of a massive overrun of Covid cases here.
She said the state had a "magical window" to vaccinate and protect as many Queenslanders as possible for "when the virus gets here".
Instead of answering the question, she asked what the Opposition's plan was.
"The best thing NSW can do is get Covid under control … and not blame Queensland and WA for keeping Queenslanders and West Australians safe," she said.
Ms Palaszczuk accused the LNP of being "happy to open the borders and let the virus in".
She said national cabinet was still getting further modelling done by the Doherty Institute, suggesting the slide show that was presented to state and territory leaders last Friday was not good enough.
"I don't want to see a slide show, I want to see a paper, I want to see detailed modelling," she said.
"You open up this state and you let the virus in here and every single child under 12 is vulnerable … because they are unvaccinated."
– Jessica Marszalek
Border pass "cancelled by the Premier's snap decision"
Kawana MP Jarrod Bleijie has told the House of a story about a man called Stephen who returned home to Queensland after attending a funeral in NSW.
Mr Bleijie said the man had a valid border pass "until it was cancelled by the Premier’s snap decision".
"He was then directed to leave quarantine and return to NSW," Mr Bleijie said.
"He was happy to stay in hotel quarantine but was fined over $5,000."
Mr Bleijie asked how many Queenslanders had the Premier "deported" and fined on the way out.
Ms Palaszczuk said she wasn't aware of those circumstances.
– Domanii Cameron
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