Health checks for hub

Team to gauge interest in quarantine base

A HEALTH compliance team has been dispatched to gauge hoteliers’ interest in Cairns becoming a quarantine hub.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has agreed to accept 500 more overseas Australians per week in efforts to clear the backlog of 25,000 stranded travellers all over the world.

It comes as two new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Queensland on Sunday.

One case is a returned overseas traveller in hotel quarantine, while the other is a known contact from the Corrective

Services cluster, who is also in quarantine.

Queensland has 19 active cases, and the total number of infections stands at 1152.

Cairns MP Michael Healy said the total number of returned travellers to the city under the increased intake scheme would reach 1000 people within the next month.

Mr Healy was sceptical about the economic benefits of a quarantine hub, but said it was the right thing to do.

“I don’t think there is huge margins and some hotels don’t want to be associated with it,” he said. “But, at the end of the day, Australians need to come home, and we as a community and a state will do our bit.”

Mr Healy was clear no private security force would be charged with policing hotel detainees.

“(There is) absolutely no chance of that at all,” he said.

“The fact that they outsourced it in Victoria in the pursuit of saving money has been their downfall.”

The extra cost of engaging Australian Defence Force and police personnel is expected to be shared with the federal government, Mr Healy said. The next step is determining how many new arrivals Cairns could host, which would hinge on the findings of a government fact-finding team.

“There is a team from Queensland Health who are identifying hoteliers that are interested,” he said. “Once we know what our capacity is, we will know how many we could get. (But) I am assuming Brisbane will take the bulk.”

Cairns Chamber of Commerce board member Danny Betros was convinced housing returned travellers was the right move to prop up struggling business.

“It creates a whole heap of employment, from food to fuel to transport, catering and security,” he said

Mr Betros said Cairns hotels offered ideal quarantine conditions over Brisbane.

“Our hotels have windows and balconies. That is a massive difference, and we need the business,” he said.

“The reality is Cairns has a quarantine hotel already, and has been taking FIFO workers under the control of the Defence Force and police.”