Bombshell Wellcamp report finds Palaszczuk Government failed to fully consider home, hotel quarantine

The Premier defence of her government’s decision to spend $223m on the Wellcamp quarantine facility has been slammed by the Opposition. It comes as a report criticised the state’s failure to consider all other options.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended her government’s decision to spend $223 million on the Wellcamp quarantine facility after a bombshell report criticised its failure to consider all other quarantine options.

State Auditor-General Brendan Worrall’s long-awaited report into the state-funded 1000-bed Wellcamp quarantine centre, tabled in parliament on Friday, found the government should have “fully considered” other quarantine options – that were already working effectively – to better ensure value for money for taxpayers.

The Auditor-General also criticised the government for its secrecy over the project costs, saying it wrongly relied on a “commercial-in-confidence” excuse for months to keep information quiet.

After the report’s release, Ms Palaszczuk said the state had to step in where the former Morrison government failed to step up. But she was slammed by the state Opposition, who described the state’s investment in Wellcamp as a “political get-square”.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Mr Worrall said alternatives, such as hotel quarantine, “which was found to be effective as a first line of defence, were also still available to support the Queensland Government’s quarantine requirements during this time”.

“While there was still significant uncertainty on the continuing impact of the pandemic at this time, alternates such as home and hotel quarantine were available,” the report states.

“This should have been more fully considered at the time of entering the contract in September 2021 to better ensure value for money for taxpayers.

“Shortly after (Wellcamp) was opened to guests (February 2022), the final phase of the National Plan commenced.

“This significantly reduced the need for quarantining, resulting in only 730 people being accommodated in the facility.”

John Wagner with Annastacia Palaszczuk and Steven Miles at the Wellcamp quarantine hub in February, 2022. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Mr Worrall noted that at the time of entering into the Wellcamp contract in September 2021 Queensland was progressing toward vaccination rate targets included in the national plan and the near-term relaxation of quarantine requirements.

The Auditor-General was critical of the government’s use of “commercial in confidence” talk in prohibiting the release of the multimillion-dollar contract with the Wagner group for months, with his three recommendations all touching on confidential contract arrangements.

This included the development guidance to assist ministers in answering questions in parliament on matters where relevant information is subject to confidentiality provisions.

The Premier’s department has already rejected one of three key recommendations.

Speaking on Friday following the release of the report, Ms Palaszczuk said “our hotels were full” and she didn’t have a “crystal ball” when the government signed off on the building of Wellcamp.

“Let’s remember this was a different space and time,” she said.

“We were acting on the chief health officer’s advice … this best suited the needs of people at that time.”

In her response on Friday, Ms Palaszczuk accused the federal government – led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the time – of “failing” to step up.

“If you look back, people were being buried in mass graves, and we only lost seven lives,” she said.

“All we were trying to do was keep people safe.

“The pandemic could have got worse. We applied the best advice at the time to keep Queenslanders safe.

“I don’t have a crystal ball.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie said the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s decision to rule out updating confidentiality provisions for government contracts was a “window into the culture of the Palaszczuk government”.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Jarrod Bleijie. File picture: Liam Kidston

“The Auditor-General has made recommendations saying that ministers should be more transparent when it comes to expenditure of public funds,” he told reporters on Friday morning.

“Ruling out transparency and openness before the report is even publicly available, publicly consulted on, just shows what a terribly bad culture we have in the Queensland Labor government.”

Mr Bleijie dismissed the state government’s repeated assertion Queensland had no option but to build its own quarantine facility due to the Morrison government’s “failure to step in”.

He cited the timeline from the Auditor-General’s report, which showed the Queensland government entered into an agreement with the Commonwealth on August 16, 2021, to divide responsibility to build and manage the Pinkenba quarantine facility in Brisbane.

A little more than a month later, on September 27, the Queensland government then entered into a contract for stage one of the Wellcamp facility.

“This was purely a political get-square,” Mr Bleijie said.

“The Premier can keep blaming the former federal government all she wants, the reality is she wasted $223 million of taxpayer funds that could have been better invested … relieving the cost of living pressures on Queensland households.”

The Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre at Wellcamp.

The government entered into the agreement with the Wagners in September 2021 after nine months of negotiating.

Wellcamp operated under a lease to the Queensland Government from February 4 2022, effectively closed on August 1 2022 and was returned to the owner on April 29 2023 when the lease expired.