Feeding the chooks: Wellcamp quarantine hub’s new use and Tiger King comes to parliament

Mark Ryan says ‘there will always be a number of reasons why we might need Wellcamp’. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Labor’s Mark Ryan is the latest Palaszczuk government minister clutching at straws to justify the secret deal it has struck with billionaire family the Wagners to build a quarantine camp near Toowoomba.

It seemed like a legitimate idea in January when it was first mooted and later scrapped by the Prime Minister.

But we now have plentiful vaccines and borders are opening up around the country requiring no or home quarantine, including in Queensland.

Labor had used the proposed camp to criticise Scott Morrison all year for blocking the proposal, but he then gave the green light to a facility at Pinkenba.

Labor’s secret polling showed it worked as an attack issue against the federal government when it was being blamed for a slow vaccine rollout.

Now, Queensland has two expensive facilities being built within 150km of each other, but the apparent need is dwindling.

Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe was rolled out on Tuesday to spruik the benefits of using the Wellcamp hub to accommodate international students.

It’ll be hard to convince them to come directly to Queensland, though, when vaccinated students could simply fly into other states without the need to quarantine and skip over the border, saving about $3000.

Ryan, the state Police Minister, was asked about the need for the facility on Thursday when he repeated the international students line and suggested unvaccinated travellers from overseas could quarantine in the facility.

“There will always be a number of reasons why we might need Wellcamp. One is for international students,” Ryan said.

“There will always be a requirement for unvaccinated people coming into Australia to have some sort of quarantine.”

The government has leased the 1000-room facility (still under construction) for a year, with an option to extend for another year.

It’s costing about $200 a night for each room, which comes in at a cool $1.4m a week for at least 52 weeks, whether it’s filled or not.

Not to mention the police and medical staff needed.

There’s also a very secretive capital payment, which the government has refused to reveal because of supposed commercial in confidence arrangements.

Legal eagle bills soaring

The legal bills are stacking up at the Liberal National Party in separate court battles involving former Brisbane City councillor Kate Richards and conservative factional boss David Goodwin.

Former Brisbane City councillor Kate Richards. Picture: Annette Dew

Since the actions began in March last year, party documents show the LNP has paid more than $170,000 to the Sparke Helmore legal firm, which is running defence in the cases.

Richards launched defamation action against the LNP after she was disendorsed ahead of last year’s March city hall elections when party powerbrokers publicly declared they had referred “extremely grave” but undetailed allegations against her to the corruption watchdog.

Once regarded as a future mayor, Richards was completely cleared by the Crime and Corruption Commission and accused the “faceless men” of the party of running a vendetta against her that began with a sexist grilling in closed-door candidate vetting sessions.

This week, the LNP paid $40,000 in costs to Richards’ lawyers after losing a court challenge on her how-to-vote cards when she ran as an independent.

Goodwin is suing for defamation after his public suspension on disproved allegations he was involved in a membership recruitment drive linked to a far-right extremist.

The LNP reinstated his membership and apologised, but the case continues.

Insiders wonder how much the legal battles will cost the party, which is already struggling financially, with the possibility of massive damages payouts and legal bills if both win their cases.

Joe Exotic is the subject of a drama series being filmed in Brisbane.

The king comes to town

It hasn’t been used to seat a senate in 100 years but Queensland’s Red Chamber will roar back to life next month when it becomes the set for a drama adaptation of the hit Tiger King Netflix documentary.

US television series Joe Exotic – about the eccentric exploits of a mullet-wearing big cat owner and felon and his stoush with wildlife sanctuary owner Carole Baskin – has been in production in Brisbane the past few months.

Clerk of the parliament Neil Laurie sent out an email to MPs and parliament staff on Thursday advising them some areas of the building – most notably the Red Chamber, which has been out of regular use since the Upper House was disbanded in 1922 – would be off limits for a week.

Chooks wondered which of the state’s MPs could fill in as extras on the show, but we were disappointed to find out the regular cast is in a Covid bubble, meaning no outside interaction is allowed.

Bumper idea

The Palaszczuk government’s latest genius idea to drive vaccinations up is bumper stickers.

That’s right, leading the government’s last-ditch vaccination push is a plan to slap magnetic stickers on police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.

The sticker reads: “Our job saves lives, your jab saves lives.”

Almost one million Queenslanders older than 16 have not had their first vaccine dose (964,497 to be exact).

If Police Minister Mark Ryan – who called an 8.30am press conference to launch the “new initiative urging Queenslanders to get vaccinated” – thinks whacking stickers on cop cars will finally motivate a million people who have delayed being jabbed, we are in serious trouble.

It would almost be funny if there were not still swathes of the state with dangerously low vaccination rates that will be exposed to death and serious disease when the border opens in seven weeks.

Death to coal

Extinction Rebellion activists – those people who glue themselves to roads and cause traffic chaos – finally got the attention of Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday via a new approach to protesting.

A small group of people gathered out the front of the building to hold a faux funeral for the “deaths from the Australian digging up of coal and fossil fuels”.

More than a dozen fake body bags were laid on the path outside the gates of parliament as a solo violinist played a requiem.

The soft melancholic music wafted through the chamber during the Premier’s speech to parliament on Thursday morning.

“Is that coming from outside?” she said.

“It is nice music, very calming for parliament, very calming.”

The protester who went to the effort of gluing his hands to the roof of parliament earlier this month would be kicking himself.

Senator Pauline Hanson, right, has been on the hustings and planning to cause headaches for smaller parties including Bob Katter MP’s Katter’s Australia Party. Picture: Zak Simmonds

One nation ‘shock’

“The public will be shocked.”

That’s the message from a senior One Nation source who says the party is on the verge of announcing its second senate candidate to sit below Pauline Hanson on the ticket.

It’ll no doubt take a fairly monumental candidate to indeed shock the Australian public, which has grown somewhat used to the minor party’s out-there antics and interesting candidates over the past two decades.

The source said the party would make the announcement within the next week or so and reckoned it was in with a chance of winning a second senate seat.

Hanson has been in Tasmania this week (after a quick appearance in Brisbane with Bob Katter) where she has popped up at town halls to hear from voters.

They were also buoyed by the state of affairs in Canberra and the National Party’s acquiescence regarding net-zero targets, predicting it will boost their chances of picking up votes from the disenchanted.

“It gives us a great opportunity because people know where we stand and our support for agriculture and mining,” the source said.

Apparently even the Nats are expecting to lose votes to One Nation, as well as United Australia Party and Katter’s Australian Party.

It’s left the party contemplating a split how-to-vote card in Queensland, alternating between putting the LNP and Labor above one another.

“The public own their preferences and how-to-vote cards are just a guide, but ultimately all options are on the table,” a One Nation spokesman said.

Sri chained up

Gabba ward councillor Jonathan Sri on his untethered bike. Picture: AAP

Greens Brisbane councillor Jonathan Sri is well-known for getting around the city on his bike.

He was even pulled over and fined recently for allegedly riding through a yellow light by a police officer who had been a regular online critic of the first and only Greens councillor in city hall.

That is now the subject of an internal police probe.

On Tuesday, city hall insiders told Chooks that while Sri was in the chamber for debate someone took decided to make life a little difficult for the councillor.

When Sri emerged from city hall to go home, he discovered that the bike had not just one chain but a second chain locking it to the bike rack.

Security was called and eventually the chain was cut, and investigations are underway.