Toowoomba quarantine hub: Why government didn’t need to tell Toowoomba Regional Council

The Queensland Government has committed to forging ahead with a 1000-bed quarantine facility at Toowoomba. This is why they didn’t need to tell Toowoomba Regional Council.

The Queensland Government is pushing ahead with a 1000-bed quarantine facility in Toowoomba, and there’s nothing council can do to stop it.

On Thursday morning Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Thursday the government had reached an agreement with the owners of Wellcamp Airport, John Wagner and the Wagner family, to build a 1000-bed purpose-built quarantine facility.

As part of the agreement, the construction will be completed by Wagner Corporation, with the State Government to operate the facility once it is up and running.

Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio confirmed the state government was able to move ahead with the project without prior council approval.

“The state government has the capacity to overrule anything that we do in terms of planning and permitting those things to happen,” he said.

“When it came to the previous proposal the only thing (that council would be doing) would be to licence the plumbing.

“We’re not big players in this at all but the way the whole thing has happened, to me as a long term serving local government person, there’s been a real lack of respect to this community.”

Mr Antonio said he was disappointed the government didn’t consult him or anyone else on the council.

“The decision has been made by the state government, they are legislatively able to make that kind of decision and now the first thing I would ask is that the State Government visits Toowoomba as soon as they possibly can to give myself, my colleagues and this community an update on where we are,” he said.

“The biggest thing in my mind is the failure of the state government to bring this community on this journey.”

Originally published as Toowoomba quarantine hub: Why government didn’t need to tell Toowoomba Regional Council