Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk travelled to Wellcamp Airport on the city’s outskirts on Thursday morning to on the airport’s grounds.
Asked whether the Prime Minister or even the local mayor knew about the announcement before she fronted the media,Ms Palaszczuk said,“I’m quite sure he does now.”
Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio learnt about the announcement while driving back from an event at Oakey this morning,and said he was very disappointed by the state government’s handling of the issue.
“That shows an absolute lack of respect to local government … and the people of Toowoomba,” Mr Antonio said.
“There is a real fear in the community about the virus getting in,and they have taken the monkey off the back of the rest of Queensland and put it on us.”
The mayor said he was not necessarily against the facility entirely,but said there had been absolutely no consultation of the council or the community,adding he still had not received any response to.
“We sent that letter on the 11th of February,and we have not had a reply,” he said.
“They were legitimate questions on behalf of the health and business community in Toowoomba.”
Former mayor and prominent businessman and philanthropist Clive Berghofer,and said people had started to contact him already in the hours after the announcement was made public.
“The trouble is the uncertainty,” he said. “At least with a drought or a recession you know broadly how things will go and what will bring you out of it.”
“We don’t know what this virus will do,and that is driving a lot of fear in this community.”
The Queensland government has been at loggerheads with the Commonwealth
Federal LNP Groom MP Garth Hamilton said he was disappointed the Premier decided to “force” the Wellcamp proposal on Toowoomba without consultation with the community.
“If Toowoomba has a load to bear throughout this crisis,we’re happy to bear it,we just want to know the details and we want to know there’s a plan to keep Toowoomba safe.
“The federal government has already ruled out this site because of its lack of proximity to a tertiary hospital and I would question the common sense of putting people in a bus for 1.5 hours and bringing them up to Toowoomba and suggesting they will be COVID safe along that trip.”
Mr Hamilton said the federal government was still committed to delivering the quarantine facility at Pinkenba,an alternate site proposed by the Commonwealth at the.
In federal question time,opposition leader Anthony Albanese asked if the reason the Queensland government was forced to “go it alone” on the Toowoomba proposal was because the Prime Minister had not done his job.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison replied:“No.”
Wagner Corporation,which operates Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport,will build the facility.
Company director Denis Wagner said their firm had the advantage of “being able to move quickly” at Toowoomba which was a bonus to the Queensland government.
Mr Wagner said he saw no major problems with obtaining approvals for international and interstate flights to arrive at the airport adjacent to the new quarantine facility.
“We would dearly love to have international passenger services in and out of Wellcamp,” he said.
“I think that will happen ultimately. Will this enhance that,or bring that forward,I think possibly.”