Welcome to ‘Wastecamp’: Inside the $215m quarantine hub saga
Nearly 900 social housing homes could have been built with the $215m spent on the now-mothballed Wellcamp quarantine hub at Toowoomba, says the opposition. We go inside the pandemic panic and petty politicking that led to the white elephant being built.
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As machinery broke ground behind her in the paddock where 1000 beds would be built to house desperate Queenslanders wanting to get home, Annastacia Palaszczuk declared, “If you build it, they will come.”
The Premier was referring to the federal government, which hadn’t thrown its support behind the Wellcamp quarantine facility in Toowoomba because it wasn’t close enough to an international airport or tertiary hospital.
By this point, Queenslanders had been subject to a months-long impasse between the state and federal governments over a dedicated quarantine facility as the deadly Covid-19 Delta strain savaged the country.
Despite the Premier’s comments, the commonwealth ultimately didn’t come, and while 730 people have required accommodation at Wellcamp since then, taxpayers could argue that neither did Queenslanders.
When considering the viability of the Palaszczuk government’s now-defunct Wellcamp centre, the writing was on the wall within months of it being announced.
In January this year, just one month out from opening the first tranche of 500 beds, the government was still working out who would stay there.
The state was inching towards the 90 per cent double-vaccination rate milestone that would allow vaccinated interstate and overseas travellers to enter Queensland without restriction.
That day soon came, leaving Wellcamp open for unvaccinated international arrivals and close contacts who couldn’t isolate at home.
Then on April 28, the requirement for unvaccinated international arrivals and close contacts was scrapped, rendering the $215m Toowoomba centre effectively useless.
But, on the eve of mothballing Wellcamp and with nine months left on the multimillion-dollar lease, the government still doesn’t know what it’s going to do with it.
A number of ideas have been tossed around, such as housing Covid-positive cruise-ship guests or turning it into a mental-health facility.
Queenslanders were quick to call on the Premier this week to use it for urgently needed social housing.
“There’s a whole lot of accommodation just sitting at Wellcamp empty,” one person commented on an affordable housing post on the Premier’s Facebook page. “It could house a whole lot of the local residents who are currently living in cars and tents.”
“What are you going to do with all those empty units out at Wellcamp? Relocate them so they can be used for crisis accommodation, seeing OUR TAXES paid for them?” another person wrote.
“Why don’t we use Wellcamp and Pinkenba from Covid quarantine to made them available to help housing shortages,” wrote another.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles this week revealed the government was assessing whether it could be used as a mental-health facility, a drug and alcohol facility, or for homeless people or victims of domestic violence.
But no decision has been made, meaning Wellcamp will sit empty until one is.
Mr Miles noted this week that it would remain available should the “pandemic response settings” change.
The government’s 12-month lease with Wagner Corporation began in April this year and it has the option to extend if required.
While the opposition seized upon revelations this week that a staggering $215m had been spent on Wellcamp, there was no criticism from Labor MPs.
“The government responded to a rapidly evolving situation to help keep Queenslanders safe,” one MP said.
“It’s easy to criticise in retrospect, but it was a decision made as an alternative to the costly and inefficient hotel quarantine.”
That sentiment, however, wasn’t shared by a senior health source who revealed staff were sceptical of the project when it was announced and questioned why it was needed.
They said there was “definitely” a perception that the project was political following ongoing squabbling between the state and federal governments.
It was revealed in January last year that the Palaszczuk government was considering establishing a dedicated quarantine facility in Queensland after greater Brisbane was sent into a three-day lockdown when a cleaner at the Hotel Grand Chancellor contracted the highly contagious UK strain.
The Homeground mining camp in Calliope was on the cards, but Gladstone Mayor Matt Burnett and the community protested the idea.
The government was also considering a proposal by Wagner Corporation for a 1000-bed facility on the company’s land in Toowoomba.
What ensued was a months-long stalemate between the state and federal governments, with the commonwealth claiming it hadn’t received enough information about the project, while the Premier argued that her government had provided enough for in-principle support.
Ultimately, the Coalition didn’t back Wellcamp and surprised the government in June when it revealed the facility would need to be built on commonwealth land.
Weeks later, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered to pay for a facility at Pinkenba in Brisbane if Queensland built and ran it.
A memorandum of understanding was then signed by the Palaszczuk government on August 16.
Ten days later, the Premier flew to Toowoomba to announce her government was going it alone and building its own facility after striking a deal with Wagner Corporation.
The cost of that deal was kept secret for 11 months with the government, and Wagner Corp chairman John Wagner, insisting it was commercial-in-confidence, despite having not gone to tender.
Right-to-information applications failed to reveal the cost in the months that followed as frustrated journalists were repeatedly reminded of the clause.
A Quarantine Management Taskforce was established with consultants from EY and PwC providing assistance to the government.
Former QAS commissioner Russell Bowles, who had recently announced his retirement and was on leave, was seconded to help out.
The government has said the Taskforce, which cost $14.3m, worked across both Wellcamp and Pinkenba.
But sources have insisted it largely focused on the Toowoomba site.
It’s understood the decision-making around Wellcamp was kept very tight between the Premier, Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Health Minister.
Asked whether he ever saw a time when the cost would be made public, Mr Wagner told The Courier-Mail earlier this year: “That’s a matter for ourselves and the government to discuss, but I really feel quite strongly that we bid it, and we don’t want people knowing what our commercial deals are.”
Then, during Budget Estimates on Wednesday this week, the Deputy Premier revealed the costs.
$198.5m for building and leasing
$9m for a contract with Compass Group to provide services such as catering, cleaning and security
$7.6m to date for a contract with Aspen Medical (that also didn’t go to tender) to provide on-site health services.
Mr Miles revealed Wellcamp, which the government refers to as the Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre (QRAC), would be placed into care and maintenance from August 1 and that the commonwealth’s Pinkenba facility was no longer needed.
It’s not known what this site will be used for in the future either.
Mr Miles said the government had always intended to release the costs but the commercial-in-confidence clause was required to allow Wagner Corp the opportunity to negotiate with their providers.
Mr Wagner did not wish to comment when approached by The Courier-Mail this week.
It’s not known what the company will do with the facility once it’s handed back, but the accommodation is next to its proposed entertainment precinct that could boast a 40,000-seat venue for major events.
The state government in 2020 provided $40m in conditional support for the precinct.
The opposition slammed QRAC this week, labelling it “Wastecamp” and a white elephant.
It’s not the first time a project has been questioned, with both the Tugun desalination plant which cost taxpayers $1.2bn, and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Pipeline, which had a bill of $2.4bn, also previously being branded white elephants.
The opposition claimed 870 social housing homes could have been built for the same price as Wellcamp, while 2300 teachers and 2300 police officers could have been employed.
“This was a trigger-happy decision to try and wedge the former federal government and this waste could’ve funded nearly 2500 nurses in the middle of a health crisis,” Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said.
Mr Miles declared that his only regret was that Wellcamp wasn’t built sooner.
This was a sentiment that echoed the Premier on the day the project was announced.
“This could have been built by now,” she said on August 26 last year.
“We’ve got to get on with this; it is a race.”
Asked why her government hadn’t gone it alone six months earlier then, Ms Palaszczuk said authorities had had to work through the proposal in detail.
“I’m quite sure he does now,” she quipped when asked whether the Prime Minister knew Queensland was forging ahead with the facility.
Taxpayers around the country are paying the price for pandemic politics.
For Queenslanders, that price tag is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
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