No secret Queensland quarantine deals, say providers

Health service providers have called for an open tender process to run the proposed federal quarantine facility at Pinkenba, after a similar $40m contract was given out in a secret deal.

The Queensland government’s Wellcamp quarantine facility, near Toowoomba. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Health service providers have called for an open tender process to run the proposed federal quarantine facility at Pinkenba, after a similar $40m contract was given out in a secret deal by the Palaszczuk government.

Several service providers have shared their frustration over the backroom deal that resulted in the contract to run Queensland’s Wellcamp quarantine centre being given to Canberra-based Aspen Medical without going to tender.

Terms of the contract, leaked to The Australian, also positioned Aspen – which was represented by Labor-aligned lobbying firm Anacta Strategies – as frontrunner to conduct services for the proposed Pinkenba facility, near the Brisbane airport.

The Palaszczuk government has refused to disclose the details of the contract or the full cost to state taxpayers of the 1000-bed Wellcamp centre, which, as of last week, has had only 290 people in quarantine at various times since it opened on February 5.

The government has previously said it did not put the contract out for tender because Aspen was the only operator big enough to carry out the project, however several service providers have disputed this.

In a letter written to the state opposition, the managing director of Brisbane-based Anodyne Services Australia, Gavin Torrens, said it was unfortunate the government had “ignored the tender process”. “We strongly dispute the current Queensland Premier’s comments that the appointed medical provider was the only one capable of managing this contract as absurd, incorrect, and offensive,” Mr Torrens said.

He said the government had a long list of “vetted, capable, and competent organisations” that could have done the job.

“I have spoken with several industry contacts, all based in Queensland, all capable and competent, and like us, none were approached to provide any input or commercial submission,” Mr Torrens said.

“The Palaszczuk Labor government has failed us, failed Queensland, all the while spending our tax dollars to support a non-Queensland-based business in a time when working together as a team could not be more important.”

The Wellcamp contract shows Aspen staff will be flown in to Toowoomba for work, with their airfares, accommodation and meals provided.

Glenn McKay, the managing director of the Medical Rescue Group, said his organisation was also disappointed at having been overlooked, despite having a good relationship with Queensland Health after providing services to support the vaccination rollout across Queensland and supplying clinical staff to assist at Brisbane Quarantine hotels.

“We are well established in Queensland and to claim no other providers were capable is simply untrue,” Dr McKay told The Australian.