Spat over Toowoomba quarantine hub boils over
A plan to house international arrivals in Toowoomba for their quarantine has hit a stalemate with Scott Morrison and Annastacia Palaszczuk both blaming each other.
QLD News
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Plans for a Toowoomba quarantine hub are in chaos with the Morrison and Palaszczuk governments each insisting they are not to blame for the proposal reaching a stalemate.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday lashed the Queensland Government for failing to deliver a comprehensive proposal for its planned 1000-bed facility at Wellcamp Airport, near Toowoomba.
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“I need a detailed, costed proposal that the Commonwealth could consider,” he said after yesterday’s National Cabinet.
“There’s been a lot of going backwards and forwards, but as yet the Commonwealth doesn’t have a costed proposal that we could actually consider.”
The comments followed weeks of the Queensland Government ratcheting up pressure on Mr Morrison to approve the hub despite failing to lodge a detailed proposal.
Ms Palaszczuk later hit back saying Mr Morrison’s argument that quarantine hubs worked best when close to an international airport sounded “like an excuse to me”.
“We need to know: are the Commonwealth interested or not,” she said.
“I mean it’s very fundamental.”
A spokesman for Ms Palaszczuk said a joint working group from the two governments had been “working productively” since January 27 “to progress the necessary detail for a regional quarantine facility in Queensland”.
Groom MP Garth Hamilton blasted the Palaszczuk Government’s failure to develop a proper plan, saying the issue was creating significant community concern and anger the longer it lasted.
“It’s arrogant (for the Queensland Government) to have gone for six weeks expecting the federal government to write out a blank cheque,” he said.
“The Morrison government has been working very closely with other states to deliver our economic recovery plan but the QLD government can’t even put a detailed plan together.
“It’s time for the Premier to show us her plans.”
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