GUNN TV CLAIMS ’ABSOLUTE RUBBISH’

A TASMANIAN doing his stint in hotel quarantine after returning from NSW has described a man’s excuses for fleeing last week as “absolute rubbish”.

Tim Gunn, 31, sparked a threeday lockdown across southern Tasmania when he broke hotel quarantine, allegedly spent 18 hours in the community, before being picked up by police the next day. He later tested positive to the Delta strain of Covid-19.

Mr Gunn flew from NSW to Hobart via Melbourne on Monday, October 11, and was taken to the Travelodge to quarantine.

In a report on 7 Tasmania News on Tuesday night, Mr Gunn said he planned to move to Tasmania to be with his partner. He claimed he was told during a phone call to Public Health he did not need to quarantine and denied allegations he escaped mandatory quarantine.

All this was too much to take for Alec Rawlings, whose frustration boiled over as he watched the interview from his hotel quarantine room.

“He is talking absolute rubbish and he is absolutely demeaning the work the government has done to keep Tasmania safe,” Mr Rawlings, who recently returned home from studying in NSW, told the Mercury.

Mr Rawlings went through the same process barely a week later and believed there was “no way” Mr Gunn would have been informed that he was able to return to the state and not have to quarantine.

“That isn’t an option except for very specific cases, and you are asked several times about this because, of course, government liaisons actually don’t want to be throwing people in hotel rooms,” he said.

Director of Public Health Dr Mark Veitch said the public could “make what it would” of Mr Gunn’s claims made on television.

Deputy Commissioner of Tasmania Police Donna Adams said the veracity of the claims would be assessed and the interview would be an “important piece of information” in an ongoing investigation into the breach.

Mr Rawlings carries no ill-feeling over his treatment in previously being denied access or having to pay for hotel quarantine.

“We are as safe as we are because Tassie has done a really good job,” he said.