The Centre for National Resilience,a quarantine hub built in response to the COVID pandemic,was officially finished on August 25 –less than a month after the Queensland government advised the Commonwealth it would no longer be needed.
The land,owned by the Department of Defence,is in an industrial area next to Brisbane Airport.
Queensland Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the federal government’s decision to use the site for police training was disappointing.
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Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner went further,calling the decision a “sad and absurd outcome” and “truly demoralising for those people sleeping rough in Brisbane”.
“It’s been 641 days since I wrote to the federal government urging them to put the idle and empty 500-bed facility to better use,” Schrinner said.
“Had the federal government acted,that’s 641 nights that hundreds of people,including women and children,won’t have been forced to sleep in cars and tents at sites across Brisbane.”