Decision came as surprise to city’s mayor
TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL MAYOR “SURPRISED” BY WELLCAMP QUARANTINE HUB ANNOUNCEMENT
TOOWOOMBA Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio said he was “surprised” with the State Government’s decision to move forward with the Wellcamp Airport quarantine hub.
The Premier’s decision caught Mr Antonio off-guard yesterday morning while he was at a community breakfast in Oakey. He said he understood concerns in the community around the potential for the hub to bring with it a Covid-19 outbreak.
“It’s disappointing to me that we weren’t brought on this journey,” he said.
TOOWOOMBA’S Mayor Paul Antonio was on his way back from a council event at Oakey when he was told a 1000-bed quarantine Covid hub was coming to his city.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced yesterday the state government had come to terms with Wagner Corporation to form a partnership to build and operate a quarantine hub at Wellcamp Airport, owned by the Wagners.
Mr Antonio said he was surprised that neither he nor anyone else at Toowoomba Regional Council were informed of the major decision.
“In saying that the decision has been made by the state government, they are legislatively able to make that kind of decision and now the first thing I would ask is that the State Government visits Toowoomba as soon as they possibly can to give myself, my colleagues and this community an update on where we are,” he said.
“I’m quite suprised by it. We’ve been on this journey for quite some time.”
Mr Antonio said he was informed of the decision by staff as the Premier’s press conference was taking place.
“I had a lovely morning at the mayoral prayer breakfast in Oakey and I had a phone call (from a staff member) asking me if I was invited to the press conference, and I said ‘what press conference?’,” he said.
“I got back to the office and my staff had been watching the announcement and it was very clear that we had been bypassed in the conversation and now we’re having a quarantine facilty built here.”
Mr Antonio confirmed the State Government was able to move ahead with the facility without development application approval.
“I clearly understand the concerns there are of many people in the Toowoomba area, you’ve only got to turn on the TV and see the case numbers in NSW to see that Covid has the capacity to spread very quickly,” Mr Antonio said.
“I think anyone in Toowoomba that hears this news would naturally have some concerns about that.”
Mr Antonio also acknowledged the economic benefit that would come from the facility.
Wagner Corporation chairman John Wagner said the facilty would be worldclass, and provide up to 450 jobs during construction which is expected to continue through to the first quarter of 2022.
Mr Antonio said the quarantine facility presented an opportunity for the State Government to invest further in Toowoomba’s healthcare for the future.
The Queensland Government has been under pressure to build a new Toowoomba Hospital.
“We should also go back to the Queensland Government and say, ‘hey, you really need to build us a new hospital’,” he said.