Row over plans for airport quarantine

Annastacia Palaszczuk has challenged the PM to approve or reject the plan for a purpose-built quarantine facility near Toowoomba.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk addresses the media at a COVID 19 update press conference. : NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

Annastacia Palaszczuk has challenged Scott Morrison to approve or reject the six-week-old proposal for a purpose-built quarantine centre near Toowoomba.

The matter was raised briefly at a national cabinet meeting on Friday, but it was later that the Queensland Premier and the Prime Minister traded criticism over the faltering plan.

After the meeting, Mr Morrison said there was no update on the quarantine plan because his government was yet to receive a “firm costed proposal”.

“I need a detailed costed proposal that the commonwealth can consider,” Mr Morrison said.

He said Australia could not simply redirect commercial flights to different airports, particularly if there was not the ground crew to support them.

The 1000-bed camp could be built within 14 weeks if the federal government allocated slots for international passenger flights to land at the Wellcamp airport.

Prominent Toowoomba businessman John Wagner has submitted a plan to build the centre next to the airport his family-owned company Wagner Corporation built in 19 months in 2014.

The Wagners have said they would pay for the construction of the accommodation, which would be modified to limit the risk of spreading COVID-19 from travellers to staff, and charge the government for each traveller. The traveller would then reimburse the government.

Ms Palaszczuk said the federal government needed to say whether it was interested in the Wellcamp proposal.

“Are they interested or not? It’s a very simple question,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “John Wagner has provided all the details of his proposal to the commonwealth … they’re the people who have to allow the airlines to land in Wellcamp. It’d be nice to get an answer one way or not.”

Ms Palaszczuk said she was concerned the particularly infectious variants of the virus would spread from hotel quarantine, as happened in Brisbane in January, prompting a three-day lockdown.

Similar leaks led to lockdowns in Perth and Melbourne.

“We’re still not going to see the full population vaccinated until the end of October … it’s of some concern that we’re still getting these different strains popping up into our hotels,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

She said Mr Morrison’s comments that he could not just ­redirect commercial flights to different locations sounded “like an excuse”. “If they want charter flights to go into Wellcamp, they can make it happen,” she said.

Toowoomba-based federal Liberal MP Garth Hamilton said Ms Palaszczuk was “tone deaf” to the concerns of Toowoomba residents.

“For six weeks she’s been asking for a blank cheque for a plan that she hasn’t put any ­details to,” Mr Hamilton said.

“All she’s done is taken the Wagners’ plan and put it to the commonwealth. The Wagners’ plan is about how to build the thing, it has nothing to do with how it’s run, interaction of Queensland health, the police, local emergency services.”