Labor: Crack down on interstate arrivals
THE state government should seek to have biosecurity officers stationed in interstate jurisdictions to ensure travellers do not enter Tasmania without the proper authorisation, the opposition says.
But Premier Peter Gutwein has dismissed the idea, saying there was no legal scope to do so.
Speaking in Launceston on Sunday, Labor treasury spokesman Shane Broad said there needed to be a thorough investigation into how a 31year-old NSW man was able to enter Tasmania without the correct documentation and
subsequently escape hotel quarantine in Hobart.
The man, who later tested positive to the Delta strain, was in the Bridgewater community for roughly 18 hours before police tracked him down and took him to quarantine at the Fountainside Hotel.
His actions have brought the state to a standstill, prompting Mr Gutwein to announce a snap three-day lockdown on Friday, which is due to end at 6pm on Monday.
“First of all, this person got on a plane without a G2G pass,” Dr Broad said.
“Secondly, he walked out of hotel quarantine.
“And then after that, nobody realised he’d gone for the best part of a day.
“So there’s a lot of problems there that we need to be looking at. The government, I think, needs to be thinking about whether we’ve got the resources we need in hotel quarantine.”
Dr Broad said the government should work with other states and territories to make sure people do not come to Tasmania without a G2G pass.
“We’ve already got biosecurity staff at the port in Melbourne,” he said.
“We could extend that to the Melbourne Airport and then get someone in Sydney.
“There (are) jurisdictional issues where we can’t make Victoria or NSW do what we want, we can’t demand them (to do what we want) – but we can work with them, we can negotiate.”
Mr Gutwein, however, said securing such an outcome would be difficult.
“Lawfully, our reach extends to the Tasmanian boundary, to the Tasmanian border,” he said.
“We have no lawful role to play in Victoria or NSW.
“So what we have been doing is ensuring that at those airports people are provided with information in terms of what they need to enter Tasmania.”
Mr Gutwein said the State Control Centre was investigating the hotel quarantine breach, noting the NSW man could only have escaped one of two ways – via the door or the window of his room. “We’re looking into it, and if there’s further details, we will provide you with them,” he said.