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Wellcamp Airport proposal shapes argument for regional quarantine hubs

Article image for Wellcamp Airport proposal shapes argument for regional quarantine hubs

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has put forward a proposal to use a regional airport’s land for quarantining overseas arrivals at national cabinet today.

The owner of Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport, John Wagner, has suggested using a large facility capable of housing hundreds to thousands of people.

He explained to Deborah Knight international arrivals could land at Wellcamp and board dedicated buses to the facility. There, they would be processed through customs and immigration before being taken straight to their rooms.

Prior to national cabinet, Ms Palaszczuk this morning made comments criticising the efficacy of hotels for quarantine after the virus has been passed to frontline workers multiple times across Australia.

“Our hotels weren’t built for this contagious strain, this UK variant,” she told The Today Show. “Our hotels are for travellers and tourists and businesses.”

Mr Wagner said the Wellcamp quarantine site would be entirely self-contained.

“All the staff would live on-site so there’s no issue with staff leaving the site and going into the community.

“We have that much land there and it’s very secure, we could have five or six thousand people there over time.”

Scott Morrison stated to the press following the national cabinet meeting the proposal as it stands is an “outline and there’s a lot more to fill in”.

“We’re looking at it on its merits and are not opposed to it in principle to things of this nature.

“We’ve got to look at what the relative merits are of how we expand those types of capacities.”

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Image: Getty, Nine News

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