Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's announcement that the Queensland government would push ahead with its own regional COVID-19 quarantine facility in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, came out of left field for some this week.
"Build it and they will come," Ms Palaszczuk said on Thursday, drawing on the 1989 baseball movie Field of Dreams while standing in front of a freshly turned sod on the quarantine hub site which is expected to have 500 beds operational by the end of this year.
The curveball move to back and operate the 1,000-bed facility that will be built by the Wagner Corporation on vacant land near its privately owned Wellcamp Airport caught many locals off guard.
Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio said he found out from a department director-general one minute before the media conference was due to start.
Landline
)Mr Antonio said the community had no say in a facility being built on its doorstep.
Federal LNP Member for Groom Garth Hamilton said the announcement had been "dropped on all of us very, very quickly".
"From the Prime Minister down to myself, the state members and the Mayor, no-one has been consulted, so who knows what to make of this," he said.
On Friday, in response to questions about why Prime Minister Scott Morrison wasn't told before the announcement, Ms Palaszcuk said: "Well, he doesn't tell me a lot of things that he does either."
Not surprising, given the public bickering between the two tiers of government over the proposal since it was first floated by John Wagner in January.
In June, Mr Morrison made it clear the federal government wouldn't support the Wagner plan as it didn't meet the criteria for a Commonwealth-funded quarantine compound — because it was not within easy access of a tertiary hospital.
After months of back and forth, there was finally agreement that a Commonwealth-funded, state-run quarantine facility would be purpose built at the Damascus Barracks site at Pinkenba, near Brisbane Airport.
ABC News: David Chen
)It's expected the 1,500-bed facility could be opened for the first 500 returned travellers by late March next year.
So why the push to go ahead with the Wellcamp facility now? Is it just politics at play?
University of Queensland political scientist Glenn Kefford calls it an alignment of politics and policy, which is to fill a genuine need for more regional quarantine facilities.
"The Pinkenba site by itself is simply not going to be enough in terms of the quarantine numbers that we're going to need so we can actually deal with the interstate and overseas arrivals that are inevitably going to come," he said.
"So the policy there was very clear that a decision needed to be taken to increase the capacity to manage these arrivals.
"But then there's also the politics here and there's a battle going on about who is actually managing the response to the pandemic.
"Is it the state premiers or is it the Morrison government?"
ABC News: David Chen
)Dr Kefford said perception about the management of the pandemic would be a key factor at play in the federal election likely to be held next year.
"This is also aligning with the messaging that federal Labor is using against the government — that they had two jobs around vaccination and quarantine and they failed at each of these," he said.
"The Palaszczuk government sees that this is going to complement the messaging and they can make the argument, 'Look, the Morrison government hasn't come in to support Queensland in establishing these.'
"And there's a real opportunity here for Labor state governments — especially in Queensland and Western Australia, which are very key states in the next federal election — to drive home that message."
Griffith University policy innovation hub director Susan Harris Rimmer said the state government had a right to go ahead with the facility.
"It's clear that quarantine for international arrivals is absolutely a Commonwealth responsibility but I think at this point in the game it's reasonable for states to make their own arrangements," she said.
"It has an impact on universities, seasonal workers, on Queenslanders returning home from overseas, on interstate travellers and it's the best way to make sure the Delta virus doesn't spread."
But the plan for the Wellcamp facility is light on detail and Queensland taxpayers won't be told how much of their money is being spent on it.
The Queensland government cites commercial in confidence arrangements, but the Wagners will build the facility and the state will run it under an initial one-year lease.
"It's cheaper than the Victorian model, it's probably cheaper than the Western Australia model, and it's probably going to be much cheaper than the Commonwealth's Pinkenba model," Ms Palaszczuk said in response to a question about the facility's benefit for taxpayers on Friday.
"As a Queenslander, we're getting on with the job."
It's also unclear how travellers from overseas or interstate hotspots will get to the site, given the federal government is yet to allow international visitors to fly directly to Wellcamp Airport.
Deputy Premier Steve Miles told ABC Radio Brisbane it's hoped international flights will be allowed to land at Wellcamp to minimise the risk of bussing passengers from Brisbane Airport.
Australian National University and Griffith emeritus professor John Wanna said while there was a need for the facility, it would come with risks.
"The risk is, will the Commonwealth government allow passengers to come in?" he asked.
"Will they provide the customs and passport services there? Because people have to be processed.
"And will the Commonwealth eventually foot the bill which, I think, is what Ms Palaszczuk is gambling on."
Dr Kefford said if the concerns raised by the federal government came to fruition it could backfire on the Palaszczuk government.
"If there's health reasons why you can't bus people from Brisbane to Wellcamp, for example, and it was going to lead to some sort of outbreak, that could definitely blow back on the state government," Dr Kefford said.
"If the site isn't built in the way that it's been sold, effectively in the way Howard Spring has been built, that would certainly blow back.
"And if there was anything that was revealed about the Wagner Corporation in terms of the money they made which was unsavoury then that could also blow back on the state government as well.
"Now you'd think that they would think seriously about each of those issues and they would rely on the health advice of [Chief Health Officer] Dr Jeannette Young and others."
In the state government's favour in the deal with the Wagners is the one-year lease, giving it the flexibility to continue operating the facility or walk away if the trumpeted home run becomes a foul ball.
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2021-08-27 22:10:40Z
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