‘We cannot cope’: Qld won’t open for more international arrivals
Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended Queensland’s hotel quarantine system, but says the state will not rush to welcome international students, saying the priority was to reunite families with loved ones stranded overseas.
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has insisted Queensland has a very “robust” hotel quarantine system, despite telling voters on Wednesday that it “cannot cope at the moment”.
Ms Palaszczuk today appeared to back away from the comments made at yesterday’s Sky News/Courier-Mail leaders’ debate - saying Queensland “can absolutely cope” with what it needs to do for international arrivals.
Yesterday when asked why other states were welcoming international students while Queensland was not, Ms Palaszczuk said the state’s hotel quarantine effort was near breaking point.
“At the moment, our hotels are keeping up with demand,” she said.
“We’ve increased our (international) intake from 1000 to 1150 and we’ll increase that by another 150.”
But, “we cannot extend our resources to put the lives of Queenslanders at risk,” she said.
“Our hotel quarantine cannot cope at the moment.”
Defending the state’s hotel quarantine this morning, Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland would still not rush international student arrivals, pointing to infections in other parts of the world.
“The priority is to get Queenslanders and Australians home and families reunited,” she said.
“What I said very clearly is if we had a rush of international students coming into Queensland, that could put at risk our hotel quarantine and put at risk the health of Queenslanders.”
Touring the LNP stronghold of the Gold Coast today, Ms Palaszczuk said the state’s hotel quarantine “can cope now”.
“But you cannot stretch hotel quarantine, you cannot go too quickly and too fast,” the Premier said. “Our hotel quarantine is very robust.”
Ms Palaszczuk said her government would monitor how other trials of international student arrivals operate in other states.
“And the Chief Health Officer will examine them very carefully and then she would provide me with advice,” she said.