Coronavirus: PM, Premier in quarantine camp standoff

Queensland’s regional quarantine camp would cost $70m to build but has stalled partly over a bureaucratic requirement.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called on Scott Morrison to fund the proposed quarantine facility near Toowoomba.

Queensland’s proposed regional quarantine camp would cost $70m to build but has stalled ­partly over a bureaucratic requirement that the commonwealth run an open-tender process allowing airlines to bid for flights into the Wellcamp airport.

New details obtained by The Australian reveal the Morrison government raised the need to call for airlines to fly to the Wagner family-owned airport in correspondence with the Queensland government in February, but was told by Annastacia Palaszczuk days later a “specific commitment was needed before progressing to approach the airline industry”.

“I appreciate the co-operation from your department in working to progress the proposal with officials from the Department of Premier and Cabinet,” the Queensland Premier wrote to Scott Morrison on March 4.

“However, it is not in the interests of Queenslanders that we continue to put resources into progressing to the detailed collaborative planning phase while threshold feasibility issues remain unresolved.”

Since that time, there has been little official communication.

Mr Morrison has said the federal government cannot move ahead with providing assurances on cost until it is given more detail on the proposal.

Ms Palaszczuk has repeatedly said the impasse is because the federal government needs to ­approve international flights to land at the airport but, in a letter to the Prime Minister in March, the Premier said the “matter of federal government financial support” to run and build the facility was the sticking point.

It led to the federal government abandoning plans in March to test the market to assess airline interest in flying into the Wellcamp airport.

According to two sources involved in discussions, the Queensland government’s proposal to the federal government was a 15-page document, although nine pages were of images and maps, and two other pages were cover letters.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (left) shakes hands with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk during a visit to a construction site in the suburb of Rochedale, in Brisbane, in 2019.

While the Prime Minister has been receptive to a Victorian government proposal for a quarantine facility outside the current hotel arrangement, he has repeatedly accused Queensland of failing to provide adequate ­details to progress its plan for a site near Toowoomba.

The federal government has raised the lack of an air traffic control tower at the Wellcamp airport as an issue that could hamper the interest of airlines.

The Queensland government would also retain operational responsibility of the camp, although the commonwealth would provide defence force, Border Force and federal police assistance.

Direct flights into Wellcamp — raising Queensland’s weekly cap of 1300 arrivals into quarantine — need to be offered to all carriers under aviation “bilateral rights” regulation relating to competition. The federal government also has no ability to order airlines to land at a particular airport and the only way to ensure planes arrived at Wellcamp was for the government to facilitate its own flights.

In February, Wagner chairman John Wagner told The Australian there was nothing preventing commercial airliners from landing at the airport ­instead of Brisbane.

The Queensland proposal had indicated a preference for a particular airline to fly into the Wellcamp airport, but the federal government ruled that out, saying it would need to be conducted through a tender process.

Senior Queensland government sources say there is hope the deadlock will be resolved and that the proposal has growing support across the state.

But federal Coalition insiders say there is concern about the possible electoral fallout in the blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Groom over fears of a local COVID breakout from the facility and possible strain on the local health network.

A frustrated John Wagner, holding site plans, on the area at his Wellcamp airport where he wants to immediately build a covid quarantine facility, at Toowoomba. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Ms Palaszczuk has accused Mr Morrison of playing politics with the proposal.

The Australian understands the capital cost to build the facility is more than $70m, but, ­according to Ms Palaszczuk’s letter, “the cost is expected to increase significantly once health and security considerations have been factored into the facility ­design”. In the letter, she asked the Morrison government for a “similar” funding agreement to Howard Springs in the Northern Territory for a minimum term of one year to mid-2022.

The Howard Springs agreement, signed in late 2020, provided $243.7m in federal funding up to 2022. Ms Palaszczuk said that agreement provided “a clear precedent and a sound basis to develop a funding model between the Queensland government and the federal government for a facility that performs the same functions as that in the Northern Territory”.

The tit-for-tat escalated this week with Mr Morrison ­accusing the Queensland government of withholding vital details. On Monday he said the 1000-bed Wellcamp proposal was too far from a major hospital and said the level of detail ­between the Victorian and Queensland pitches was “chalk and cheese”. However, Ms Palaszczuk said the Prime Minister “doesn’t need any more detail”.