Covid-19 Qld: Premier blasted for two-week lockout from hot spots

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s latest border move has been blasted as making it harder for Queenslanders to return home from within their own country than for Australians to travel overseas. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Queensland’s overwhelmed hotel quarantine system has slammed shut to people travelling from a ­hotspot in an extraordinary move that further isolates the Sunshine State from the rest of Australia.

After scrambling to find more hotels, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared that a torrent of people wanting to relocate to Queensland was creating a risk and stretching resources.

Unless an exemption has been granted, for the next two weeks no one including returning Queenslanders are allowed to undergo hotel quarantine in Queensland if they’ve been in a declared hotspot, as authorities create a new system where people will need to reapply for border passes.

Ms Palaszczuk said officials often didn’t know day to day how many people were coming into the state.

“They just turn up, they have their pass and they just turn up and then they just need hotel quarantine,” she said.

“So that means that we are scrambling for hotels, and this has got to stop, it’s too much pressure.”

There were 5114 people spread across 22 quarantine hotels on Wednesday, including 3257 domestic arrivals.

Between August 9 and 20, 2750 people attained border passes to relocate to Queensland, which included 1993 people in just one week.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

Queensland recorded no new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, with Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young revealing the two truck drivers who tested positive after arriving from NSW were no longer considered cases.

Victoria recorded 45 new cases, while NSW recorded its largest daily number of 919. The ACT recorded nine.

The quarantine announcement, which gave people two hours’ notice, was slammed by Queensland federal MPs, including Employment Minister Stuart Robert, who called Ms Palaszczuk’s actions extraordinary.

“The Premier has just said to Queenslanders, you’re not welcome home,” Mr Robert said. “Does that mean I get a rebate on my rates? You can’t not have your own state people back in. I don’t think it will be popular.”

Toowoomba-based Member for Groom Garth Hamilton said it was ridiculous that it was now harder for Queenslanders to return home from within their own country than it was for Australians to travel overseas.

“This is a massive overstep, there’s been no notice, no warning, this hasn’t been needed before,” he said.

“At a time when Australia is looking to open up, Labor is presenting more restrictions.”

The State Government insisted people could access hotel quarantine if they had been granted an exemption, including on compassionate or medical grounds.

Ms Palaszczuk said there simply wasn’t enough room and that the state had been overwhelmed by new arrivals from interstate hot spots Victoria, NSW and the ACT.

“We are reassessing, we are looking at other options, but Queensland is being loved to death,” she said.

Queensland is also helping the Commonwealth with arrivals from Afghanistan.

Under the new policy, ­people will need to reapply for their border passes over the next two weeks and have been booked into a quarantine hotel before arriving.

The new system is expected to be set up in coming days.

“We want to make this is as smooth as possible, but I think you can appreciate at the ­moment, not only are our ­hotels stretched, our staff are stretched,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“And this is becoming a risk … and we don’t want to see Delta coming into our community.”

The Premier said the ­government wasn’t looking at home quarantine as an option – referring to the trial South Australia was undertaking. Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said new border passes would be issued and people would be allocated a time to arrive.

“This will help us manage room capacity much better by knowing how many people are arriving and when, so we can make sure there’s a room allocated to them,” she said.

“What this will also allow is over the next fortnight, it will ease capacity, so that those who have exemptions already approved and apply for exemptions, for compassionate reasons, end-of-life visits, attending funerals, that they’re going to have rooms available for them.”

Ms D’Ath said the Government had to give little notice for the change because they didn’t want to “create a perverse incentive” for people to rush into Queensland.

More than 30,000 people have moved to Queensland from interstate since the ­pandemic started.

Police and army personnel at the Queensland border in Griffith St, Coolangatta. Picture: Nigel Hallett

‘DELTA FORCE’ ON BORDER DUTY

“Delta Force” has arrived for border duty, with troops now ready to repel a feared Covid-19 incursion from the south.

Australian Defence Force personnel began arriving at the Queensland-NSW border on Wednesday to fortify checkpoints after an SOS from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last week.

One hundred and twenty army, air force and navy troops will replace firefighters and State Emergency Service volunteers at checkpoints in a deployment expected to last until at least the end of October.

Their arrival came as Covid-ravaged NSW reported a record new 919 new cases of the virus, and Queensland halted interstate arrivals for two weeks to help ease the pressure on overflowing quarantine hotels.

Gold Coast police acting chief superintendent Rhys Wildman said 32 ADF personnel would be stationed around the clock at the four busiest Coast checkpoints – the M1 at Tugun, Gold Coast Highway at Bilinga, Griffith St, Coolangatta, and Miles St, Kirra. He also revealed 25 extra police had been sent to the Coast from Brisbane to crack down on pedestrians strolling across the border.

Originally published as Covid-19 Qld: Premier blasted for two-week lockout from hot spots