Scott Morrison refuses to back Queensland Covid quarantine at Wellcamp

Scott Morrison has refused to back the Palaszczuk government’s proposed Wellcamp quarantine facility.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has warned of further COVID-19 outbreaks unless regional quarantine facilities are built. Picture: Brad Fleet

Scott Morrison has refused to back the Palaszczuk government’s proposed Wellcamp quarantine facility, saying hotel quarantine and contact tracing had “served Australia very well” throughout the pandemic.

The Queensland and federal governments have been at an impasse for three months since the idea of purpose built quarantine camp near the privately-owned Wellcamp airport near Toowoomba was first mooted.

Both sides have blamed each other over the deadlock, with the Prime Minister saying it had not received enough detail about the proposal and Annastacia Palaszczuk saying enough detail had been provided for Mr Morrison to show in-principle support.

Asked if he would be looking further at the Wellcamp, or rejecting it, Mr Morrison said existing hotel quarantine measures, coupled with contact tracing in the event of a breach, was sufficient.

“If I told you just over a year ago when the national cabinet agreed to put in a system of hotel quarantine … and if I was to tell you that that would achieve a 99.99 per cent success rate, you wouldn’t have believed me,” Mr Morrison said. “That is what the hotel quarantine system has achieved.”

Mr Morrison said that between October and April 22 140,355 people had gone through hotel quarantine, resulting in just 13 breaches.

“I make no criticism of any state or territory government that on occasion will see breaches,” he said. “The challenge is … the ring of containment that comes into place with contract tracers. This is how the system works.

“A system that achieved 99.99 per cent effectiveness is a very strong system that is serving Australia very well.”