Builder insists quarantine centre will still be needed

The billionaire family building Queensland’s quarantine facility near Toowoomba insists it will still be needed despite NSW’s decision to scrap the isolation requirement for returning Australians.

John Wagner’s family-owned company is building a Covid quarantine facility, near Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The billionaire family building Queensland’s quarantine facility near Toowoomba insists it will still be needed despite NSW’s decision to scrap the isolation requirement for returning Australians.

Businessman John Wagner, whose infrastructure company is building the centre next to the family’s privately owned airport at Wellcamp, plans to hand the first section of 500 beds to the government by year’s end.

The cost of building the centre, proposed to house international students and seasonal farm workers, will mostly be covered by the family-owned Wagner Corporation.

Questions were raised about the viability of the project after NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet announced both home and hotel quarantine would be scrapped for fully vaccinated travellers from November 1.

Scott Morrison later asserted that international students and foreign workers would not yet be allowed quarantine-free travel and that decision would be made by the commonwealth.

Mr Wagner said he did not think the NSW government’s decision “had any effect on Wellcamp at all”.

“There will still be the need for quarantine for students, farm workers and plenty of people coming back,” he told The Weekend Australian.

Queensland authorities are unsure whether the NSW decision will impact vaccine-dependent plans to open the state border by Christmas.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said she would provide advice to Annastacia Palaszczuk on whether to open borders before she leaves the role at the end of this month to become Queensland governor.

“There has just been an enormous decision this morning … It is not just a change that will impact on NSW, opening the borders in NSW then leads to a flow-on to every other state.”