Ridiculous handballing of responsibility on hotel quarantine will cause delays

The state government’s cunning political games will delay the much-needed quarantine hub and could result in it being built at the Lindsay Fox-controlled Avalon Airport.

The announcement of plans for Victoria’s new dedicated quarantine hub follows months of speculation.

And yet acting premier James Merlino might as well have promised every Victorian a bar of gold.

Better yet, a new house.

Or a pony for every girl and boy across the state.

A render of what the new quarantine accommodation hub in Mickleham could look like. Picture: Supplied

Victoria desperately needs to quarantine travellers at a purpose-built facility, rather than in hotels. Picture: Ian Currie

Or he could have announced that Victoria was going to set up a permanent colony on the moon.

Each idea as ridiculous as the next.

But so is announcing a quarantine facility with someone else’s money, on someone else’s land.

But that’s exactly what the state government did today.

It’s proposal for the purpose built quarantine facility is first class, and according to its own hotel quarantine inquiry, desperately needed.

But its preferred model — a 3,000 bed facility at Mickleham — will only get off the ground if the federal government stumps up the $700 million needed to make it happen.

The chosen quarantine site in Mickleham is next to a pet quarantine facility. Picture: Ian Currie

The state government has yet to reveal its cost analysis of the Mickleham site. Picture: Ian Currie

It’s a tidy piece of political play that handballs the responsibility of quarantine straight back to the Commonwealth.

At the beginning of the pandemic, it was agreed at national cabinet that states and territories would take responsibility for their own quarantine arrangements.

A significant factor was that procedures for quarantine were being determined by health orders at a state and territory level.

But there has been growing frustration by some premiers about the federal government’s failure to lead quarantine arrangements.

WA Premier Mark McGowan has been particularly outspoken and has called on the Commonwealth to open military bases and Christmas Island to quarantine overseas travellers.

Calling on funding for Victoria’s new facility, the state government has forced the federal government’s hand.

Returned travellers may end up at a dedicated site at Avalon Airport. Picture: Ian Currie

But the political manoeuvring gets better.

If the feds agree to the proposal, the site will be set up at Mickleham.

If they don’t, the state government will look to the Lindsay Fox-controlled Avalon Airport site which has emerged as its backup plan.

Of course some say that’s what the government wanted all along.

Mr Merlino wouldn’t detail a cost analysis of that site today, or reveal who would pay for a quarantine facility at Avalon.

Construction at Avalon would also still require federal government approval, as the land is Commonwealth land.

As cunning as the political games at play might be, they are further delaying a much needed facility that will help Victoria’s road to recovery.

The state government has long acknowledged the need for a dedicated quarantine hub.

At the beginning of the pandemic they asked the federal government to use Australian Defence Force sites, but were told they were not suitable.

In January Daniel Andrews floated the idea of a dedicated facility.

In February the government announced it was actively pursuing the idea.

The government’s own project summary, published today, lists April 8, 2021, as the “the assumed date of decision to proceed with the project”.

That was three weeks ago.

Under a best-case scenario the facility will be up and running, in part, by Christmas.

Under the current business plan the preferred model wouldn’t be fully operational until 2023.

With government projections that COVID-19 quarantine requirements are “expected to continue in some form at least over the next two-to three years” you’d have to think the time to act is now.