Lynn Tait pursued for hotel quarantine bill after ‘nightmare’ experience
Incoming Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has been urged to review the case of a Gold Coast woman still being pursued for payment after a ‘nightmare’ quarantine experience. This is her story.
Gold Coast
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Incoming Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has been urged to review the case of a Tugun woman an MP says was subjected to “grossly disturbing experiences” during a hotel quarantine ordeal.
Former medical pathologist Lynn Tait was forced to quarantine for seven days at a hotel in Surfers Paradise after being stopped by police near the border in Coolangatta on August 29, 2021 when strict Covid-19 restrictions were in effect.
Ms Tait told the Bulletin she had inadvertently crossed the border beside the Twin Towns Resort at Griffith St while out walking in the area.
“I was just taking a walk,” Ms Tait said. “I’d been up to Point Danger, because I wanted to see if they’d started pulling the DBar cafe down. I was just walking around. I was along the beach at Coolangatta.
“It was a hot day. I think I’d gone into McDonald’s and got one of their cheap ice creams.
“... Where the (police) checkpoint was on Griffith St. Right next to that there was a pedestrian crossing.
“All I did was cross over that crossing and walk up the steps (at the Twin Towns Resort).”
Ms Tait said she was confronted by two members of New South Wales police, who took her details before walking her back to a checkpoint where she was spoken to by a Queensland Police Service officer.
“She said to me, you go to Sydney and fly back,” Ms Tait said. “Here was I standing in summer clothes. I had my phone in my hand and my sunglasses, and that was about it.”
The Bulletin understands Ms Tait’s version of events that day is contested by authorities. Ms Tait, in turn, says she was “traumatised at what was happening” at the time and disputes details recorded in the caution notice issued to her by police. What is not in doubt is that she was later that day taken to hotel quarantine.
“I went home and got in the shower and was washing my hair,” she said. “My husband and his brother were working on a car and, next minute, you know, my husband comes in and said ‘there’s police here’.
“I’d just stepped out of the shower, hair wringing wet, and I was given 30 minutes to throw some stuff in a bag and be taken to hotel quarantine.”
Ms Tait, who was fully vaccinated, spent seven days in a quarantine hotel where she says she was “isolated and uncared for” and “going crazy at the injustice of it all”.
She claims the conditions in the hotel at the time were “appalling”, with a curtain stained with what “appeared to be vomit”, “fungal growth” around air conditioning vents, “unpalatable” food served and constant noise from construction work taking place nearby.
“It was sub-standard accommodation and an unacceptable place to be trapped,” Ms Tait said.
“Having worked in the medical field in hospital pathology for almost 40 years, I have an extensive knowledge of microbiology/serology and am well aware of infection control procedures.
“So being exposed to this situation was even more horrendous for me.”
Ms Tait was allowed leave the hotel and complete her remaining seven days quarantine at home following intervention from Currumbin MP Laura Gerber.
She is now being pursued by Queensland Health for $1840 for her time at the hotel.
Adding to her distress, Ms Tait said the invoice, issued in June 2022, was sent to her husband’s email address, not her own. In addition, she was overseas visiting a relative who has since passed away at the time the invoice was issued.
Ms Tait said the bill had gone unnoticed as a result.
She recently applied for a fee waiver but was told she had missed the deadline for such applications, which was August 31 last year, and had failed to demonstrate “extenuating circumstances”.
Speaking in parliament last week Ms Gerber said Ms Tait had been held in “despicable” and “degrading” conditions. The “worst part” of the saga, the MP said, was that she was still being pursued for the quarantine bill.
Ms Gerber told the Bulletin she wanted the new Health Minister to intervene and order the bill be waived.
“Lynn was subjected to a number of grossly disturbing experiencesin the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s hotel quarantine system,” she said.
“She was in a fragile mental state, and was not provided with the care she needed.
“... Despite constant correspondence to Yvette D’Ath as Health Minister, Lynn’s ordeal has never been addressed.
“... I am calling on the incoming Health Minister to review Lynn’s case and waive her quarantine bill.”
A spokesperson for Queensland Health told the Bulletin Ms Tait has been contacted “multiple times” and had been offered options to help her pay money “owed to taxpayers”.
“We have been in contact with Lynn Tait multiple times since June 2022 to support her through the hotel quarantine process, including assessing her fee waiver application that was lodged eight months after deadline,” the spokesperson said.
“Individuals can apply for a waiver of quarantine fees in extenuating circumstances, such as financial hardship and vulnerability.
“All applications for quarantine fee waivers are considered on a case-by-case basis. Ms Tait’s application did not demonstrate extenuating circumstances.
“Ms Tait has been offered multiple options to help her pay money owed to taxpayers.”
Originally published as Lynn Tait pursued for hotel quarantine bill after ‘nightmare’ experience
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