AUSMAT to hold NT govt’s hand through Howard Springs quarantine facility expansion and transition: Prof Len Notaras

The crack team of professionals who run Darwin’s gold-standard international quarantine facility won’t be “turning off the lights” and walking away, their boss has said. But not all are convinced.

THE crack team of professionals who run Darwin’s gold-standard international quarantine facility won’t be “turning off the lights” and walking away, their boss has said.

And the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC) team will ensure the handing over of the quarantine site to the NT government will only be done once the critical care specialists are certain their “high standards” and systems are entrenched.

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National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre executive director Prof Len Notaras speaks to the media about the decision to transition AUSMAT out of the Howard Springs quarantine facility. Photograph: Che Chorley

The Howard Springs quarantine facility, as announced by the Prime Minister last week, will be expanded to cater for 2000 repatriated Australians per fortnight by the end of May, up from the current capacity of 850.

The major logistic effort will require infrastructure add-ons to the facility and the hiring of 400 extra staff.

As part of the expansion, the international and domestic wings of the facility will be merged and the NCCTRC team will be transitioned out in place of a “single governance structure” controlled by the NT government.

NCCTRC executive director Len Notaras, in a bid to quell public anxiety about the changes, said the plan had always been to transition AUSMAT out of the site to free up the highly specialised staff for their “day jobs” of training, research and deployment preparation.

Professor Notaras clarified there was no rush to scale up the capacity at the site and that the timeline of 2000 people per fortnight by the end May was realistic.

Prof Notaras said the NCCTRC would stay on if required but in light of the expansion, the transition was a “more sensible response”.

CLP Senator Sam McMahon.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker. Photograph: Che Chorley

But some remain unconvinced, including CLP Senator Sam McMahon, who slammed the handing over of Howard Springs amid the expansion of the site’s capacity as “madness on steroids”.

Senator McMahon, in a strongly worded opinion piece penned for the NT News to be published on Wednesday, said she was filled with “trepidation and fear”.

“(Chief Minister) Michael Gunner wants to more than double the capacity of this facility but at the same time take responsibility for the management away from this highly specialised team and give it to the Police Commissioner,” she said. “With all due respect to Commissioner Chalker, this is madness on steroids.

“You can say you’re going to follow set protocols all you like, but we all know without constant reinforcement, training and auditing, protocols and procedures can break down.”

Prof Notaras said the NCCTRC “would be watching very closely” to ensure the expansion was “compliant with the very strict and high standards we’ve established that have kept the Territory safe”.

“We’re not turning the lights out and just summarily leaving the place, we will be available if there is necessary information, lessons or mentoring necessary,” he said.