Victorian Covid-19 lockdown: Heavyweight push for dedicated quarantine

Industry heavyweights push for dedicated quarantine facilities to better manage Covid-19.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott says nat­ional cabinet needed to take action. Picture: Gary Ramage

Australia’s political leaders are being urged by business and industry heavyweights to establish dedicated quarantine facilities to better manage the Covid-19 health crisis and prepare for future pandemics, given the “catastrophic” consequences of coronavirus leakages from capital city hotels.

As Victoria plunged into its fourth lockdown and as contact tracers scrambled to identify primary and secondary contacts, Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said nat­ional cabinet needed to take action.

“Victorians are being plunged into despair and disbelief again by a failure to get the basics right, including our quarantine system,” she said. “This is a wake-up call to start taking the steps to better manage outbreaks and fast-track our vaccination rollout.

“Australians want a way forward that lets them get on with their lives, not a blame game.

“State and federal leaders should work through national cabinet to consider whether preventing another crushing lockdown means creating dedicated quarantine facilities.”

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said hotel quarantine had worked to an extent, but it was time for longer term solutions to deal with a virus that would be around for some time. “It’s inevitable we are going to need long-term facilities to deal with quarantine as Covid mutates,” he said.

“The vaccine is very important but as the health experts have said, it’s not a silver bullet so we’re going to need a very clear second line of defence here … and dedicated ­facilities are going to be needed.”

Australian Hotels Association chief executive Stephen Ferguson said while the industry would keep providing assistance through hotel quarantine, the government should be “continuously reassessing” quarantine options.

Scott Morrison on Thursday gave the strongest indication yet that the commonwealth would support Victoria’s proposal to build a dedicated quarantine facility. The Victorian government, under Acting Premier James Merlino, has asked the federal government to pay for its construction.

Work is expected to begin in September.

The Prime Minister described the proposal as “very useful”.

“We are highly favourable towards this,” he said. “I think one of the really useful elements of this proposal is that it adds to the ­capacity. It’s not in place of hotel quarantine.”

Former Victorian premiers, both Liberal and Labor, also urged the development of dedicated quarantine facilities.

Former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett said hotel quarantine arrangements were effective but it was imperative for the nation to develop dedicated facilities to better cope with future pandemics and the prospect of biological warfare over the next century.

He suggested at least two or three facilities like Howard Springs in the Northern Territory were needed across the country and raised the prospect of every state and territory developing its own facility.

“I have a fear that in a changing world we are potentially going to be subjected over the next 100 years to many of these sorts of challenges,” he said.

“So therefore the question you ask is how well should the country prepare, not just for dealing with this virus this year or next year or for the next five years, but how should we prepare ourselves for ­viruses that develop or are linked or are used in some form of warfare over the next century?” he said. “My view is that Howard Springs … is a good example. It is an example that should be expanded and it should be an example that could be repeated with two or three other such facilities.”

Former Labor premier John Brumby – now chancellor of La Trobe University – said there was “no more urgent imperative” than the development of dedicated quarantine facilities.

“The earlier such a facility can be constructed and operating, the better off we will be. It’s a national issue and it needs a national sense of urgency,” Mr Brumby said. “This is something which should have been put in place months earlier … Hotel quarantine has never been a viable long-term solution.”

He said the number of Australians overseas wanting to return home, skilled migrants required to fill worker shortages and inter­national students desperate to study on campus numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

“Hotel quarantine can’t cope with significant numbers,” he said. “It’s just arithmetic.”