$40M for hotel quarantine housing just 12 people

Queensland’s hotel quarantine system is being propped up by taxpayers to the tune of $40 million.

The hotel quarantine system being used to combat COVID saw taxpayers fork out the high amount of money when it was used to house just 12 people from February this year.

The state government has been attacked by the opposition for the exorbitant expenditure joking that each of the 12 people could have been bought a mansion.

The situation was made worse by an empty purpose-built facility.

Queensland wrapped up its quarantine program on 30 June, having spent $13.5 million between 31 March and the end of the financial year.

$26.9 million was spent between 5 February and 31 March this year.

At this stage, the Wellcamp facility near Toowoomba had already come online.

“When the Premier was telling Queenslanders hotel quarantine was over, her government was still funnelling money into vacant hotels because of poor planning and political games,” Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said.

“To spend tens of millions on vacant rooms and hundreds of millions on a next-to-empty quarantine facility that taxpayers will never own shows everything you need to know about the Premier’s poor priorities.”

There are 500 beds at Wellcamp that could have accommodated the 12 hotel guests. However, it is believed they were unable to stay in Toowoomba.

“Between 31 March and 30 June 2022, $13.549 million was spent on hotel isolation and quarantine,” a State Development Department spokeswoman said. “This includes payment for hotel costs incurred before that period, as hotels often invoice much later than the period of use.”

A state quarantine commissioner is now co-ordinating “an isolation system to support the pandemic response and economic recovery”. The commissioner is also working with the Commonwealth on what its Pinkenba facility will be used for.

“The commissioner is one part of Queensland’s successful Covid disaster response,” a department spokesman said.

“The commissioner also oversees government-provided isolation. Like all disaster-response roles, how it functions is reviewed as needed.”

Irit Jackson, 26^th July 2022