Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk calls to end Covid hotel isolation

Annastacia Palaszczuk has called for hotel quarantine to be abolished and international arrival numbers slashed as a ­feasibility study on Brisbane’s purpose-built quarantine site ­begins.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk talks to the media about wearing a mask at a press conference about COVID in Brisbane. Picture: John Gass

Annastacia Palaszczuk has called for hotel quarantine to be abolished and international arrival numbers slashed as a ­feasibility study on Brisbane’s purpose-built quarantine site ­begins.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has proposed a dedicated quarantine camp be built at army barracks near Brisbane Airport, killing-off the Queensland ­government’s preferred centre at Toowoomba’s Wellcamp ­Airport.

State and federal departments are now working on a feasibility report to determine whether existing buildings on the 29ha site can be used, how ­arrivals will be transferred from the airport and how long it would take before the centre could start housing people.

Ms Palaszczuk welcomed the commonwealth’s offer to pay for the centre at Damascus Barracks but said it should also push ahead with the Toowoomba proposal.

At a national cabinet meeting on Monday evening, Ms Palaszczuk called for more purpose-built quarantine centres to be constructed around Australia.

“We have seen leaks out of hotels in a large number of states,” she said.

“The best thing we can do to fight this virus is to get vaccinated and to get people out of hotel quarantine into regional facilities.

“We need to get people out of these hotels.”

The Premier’s comments mark a shift in quarantine policy, with her government previously calling for dedicated quarantine centres to be used alongside hotels, and come after a breach at a Brisbane hotel triggered a national health emergency.

A mine worker is believed to have caught the highly transmissible Delta variant after spending nine hours in the Novotel Hotel at Brisbane Airport alongside overseas arrivals on June 18.

Room-to-room transmission occurred at the hotel earlier this month.

The fly-in, fly-out worker, from Bendigo in Victoria, tested positive in the Northern Territory on Saturday.

He potentially exposed 900 workers to the virus at Newmont Corporations Granites gold mine, many of whom have returned to their home states.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said only about half of people returning to Australia were citizens or permanent residents and said the commonwealth should be stricter with exemptions.