PM resists pressure for Brisbane quarantine facility

The commonwealth has come under mounting pressure to move away from hotels and expand the number of purpose-built centres to house international arrivals.

International arrivals at Sydney airport. Picture: Nikki Short

Health Minister Greg Hunt says NSW is not seeking to build a dedicated Covid-19 quarantine facility as the commonwealth comes under mounting pressure to move away from hotels and expand the number of purpose-built centres to house international arrivals.

Mr Hunt on Sunday praised NSW for doing the “heavy lifting” on quarantine, but rejected media reports that the state was looking to move away from using the hotel quarantine system.

“They have done the heavy lifting on behalf of the nation, they have done an incredible job in bringing people home, and bringing people home safely,” he said.

“The PM has confirmed with the Premier that at this point they’re not seeking any additional quarantine facility in New South Wales.”

Last week, Scott Morrison confirmed a new 500-bed quarantine facility would be constructed in Victoria – either in Avalon, near Geelong, or Mickleham to Melbourne’s north – and pledged $200m towards its construction. It is expected to be completed by next January.

The Morrison government had released strict criteria for funding quarantine facilities that include being close to an international airport, within an hour’s drive of a specialist hospital and being complementary to hotel quarantine. Those that receive funding will also be government owned.

A Queensland proposal to build and operate a quarantine centre near Toowoomba was scuppered by the Prime Minister as it failed to meet the commonwealth criteria, prompting a sharp rebuke from state Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk.

“A regional quarantine centre could be built right now with the planes landing next door if only Scott Morrison could answer a simple question: do you support it or not?” she said.

It comes as Labor slammed the Morrison government on Sunday, warning lockdowns would still occur while hotel quarantine suffered leaks of the virus and the vaccine rollout remained sluggish.

Mr Albanese told Sky News on Sunday Mr Morrison “should have put in place purpose-built quarantine facilities run by the national government last year”.

“That was the best time to do this, the next best time is right now,” he said. “This so-called criteria they’ve come up with contradicts the government’s position that it’s nothing to do with them and that hotel quarantine is going fine.”

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles told ABC Insiders on Sunday the federal government was playing “catch-up footy” with the virus and should be focused on the vaccine rollout to prevent major lockdowns.

He said hotel quarantine was inadequate and specialised facilities were needed to ensure virus leaks from returned travellers did not occur.

“There have been 21, perhaps 22, breakouts from hotel quarantine in the course of basically the last year – that’s almost one every two weeks,” Mr Marles said.

“Right now we’ve got really one fit-for-purpose facility in the country and that’s Howard Springs, and not surprisingly there hasn’t been a break out.”

He said the financial and mental health cost of lockdowns on businesses and individuals was far higher than the dollar value of a network of quarantine hubs.

But Mr Hunt on Sunday defended the nation’s quarantine system as being “arguably the strongest” in the world and involving “multiple rings of containment”, including tracing, distancing and vaccination.