Scomo in ‘catch-up footy’ on the virus

LABOR has slammed the Morrison government, warning lockdowns will still occur while hotel quarantine is littered with failures and the vaccine rollout remains sluggish.

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles said the federal government was playing “catch-up footy” with the virus and should be focused on the vaccine rollout to prevent major lockdowns.

He said hotel quarantine was inadequate and specialised facilities were needed to ensure virus leaks from returned travellers did not occur.

“These facilities are not fit for purpose,” Mr Marles (pictured) said on ABC’S Insiders.

“They should have been accepting their responsibility for the level (of) quarantine; instead, we have seen them play catch-up footy.”

Mr Marles said no Covid-19 outbreaks had occurred in the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs facility, with the majority of outbreaks being a result of inadequate ventilation in hotels.

“These are facilities (that) have a single ventilation system in one building, which is leading to people contracting the disease in those hotels and leading to the outbreaks that we have been experiencing,” he said. “All roads lead back to a failure in managing quarantine in this country.”

The federal government has signed a memorandum of understanding for a purposebuilt quarantine facility in Victoria that will hold 500 people at once.

Mr Marles said vaccinations remained the only way for the country to overcome shutdown threats but said the country had been too complacent.