Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) outbreak discussion

[sptrawler]

The feds have not done anything to progress the Pinkenba project, which remains on the table.
In the absence of action from the feds QLD's Premier gave Toowoomba's Wellcamp facility the go ahead as it expects to open in stages from end-2021 - not a couple years as you suggest.

Here we go again, I wasnt suggesting it would take a couple of years to build, only it will take a couple of years to expose the motivation.

 

[rederob]

Here we go again, I wasnt suggesting it would take a couple of years to build, only it will take a couple of years to expose the motivation.

The benefit is less than 4 months away.
As to motivation, the feds knocked back this proposal time and again from January. You can spin it however you like but show where the feds have been proactive on international quarantine responsibilities which are THEIRS and not the States.
Morrison continues to wage war with the States and that's why we are so far behind where we could have been.

 

[sptrawler]

Why would you build a quarantine facility in the middle of nowhere, with no acute care facilities and no airport with the ability to accept international flights? Pork barreling, or buying land from donors comes to mind and I dont even live there.lol
So I dont have any skin in the game, but it does smell from afar and I may be completely wrong.
Time will tell, as it always does.
The feds want the quarantine facilies built near hospital facilities that can cope and close to airports that can accept international arrivals and preferably on federal land which they already own as they are paying for it ( well the taxpayer is).
What Queensland is doing, is like W.A building a facility in Kalgoorlie, but hey your hate for Scomo, yet again overides your common sense.
You're a bit like Sir Humphries, a million reasons to justify a poor outcome. Lol

So why would you build it out in the bush? is the land they are going to build it on State Government land?, Does the town have mass critical care capability? Is there direct access to state of the art medical care? Does the State Government take responsibility for the outcome ?

 

[mullokintyre]

The feds have not done anything to progress the Pinkenba project, which remains on the table.
In the absence of action from the feds QLD's Premier gave Toowoomba's Wellcamp facility the go ahead as it expects to open in stages from end-2021 - not a couple years as you suggest.

The link you made to Pinkemba contains nothing about Pinkemba at all. It is the statement about building Wellcamp.
Did you mean this Qld Govt Statement by any chance?
It was dated about twelve days ago, and inter alia says

“That means the Australian Government can get started building it, and once constructed, the Queensland Government will provide services to the facility.

Are you suggesting that they should have done something in the ensuing 12 days?
Mick

 

[sptrawler]

@rederob , I knight you by default the honourable Sir Humphrey Appleby, as you are the cloning of him IMO.

Humphrey Appleby - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[rederob]

The link you made to Pinkemba contains nothing about Pinkemba at all.

Please read the relevant part of my link which confirmed the point made.

 

[sptrawler]

Or you could take the short answer @mullokintyre .

Well Minister, if you ask me for a straight answer, then I shall say that, as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another in terms of the average of departments, then in the final analysis it is probably true to say, that at the end of the day, in general terms, you would probably find that, not to put too fine a point on it, there probably wasn't very much in it one way or the other. As far as one can see, at this stage. ?

Sir Humphrey Appleby

 

[mullokintyre]

Please read the relevant part of my link which confirmed the point made.

What was your point? And what is relevant?
You said that the feds had done nothing about Pinkemba, and put in a link that had nothing to do with Pinkemba.
End of story
Mick

 

[rederob]

Why would you build a quarantine facility in the middle of nowhere, with no acute care facilities and no airport with the ability to accept international flights?

Wellcamp is an international standard airport and Toowoomba is a decent size city with twice the population of Bunbury. It's about as close to Brisbane as both Sunshine and Gold Coast quarantine hotels, except once built transfers will take minutes rather than hours.

So I dont have any skin in the game, but it does smell from afar and I may be completely wrong.

Yes, you are completely wrong as these facilities could have been in place right now had the feds had a clue about quarantine arrangements and stopped playing a blame game.

Time will tell, as it always does.

You just don't get it - the feds should have done this in 2020 rather than fight with States, so time ran out ages ago.

The feds want the quarantine facilies built near hospital facilities that can cope and close to airports that can accept international arrivals and preferably on federal land which they already own as they are paying for it ( well the taxpayer is).

Prove the feds are actively pursuing this strategy as I have not seen any plans.

What Queensland is doing, is like W.A building a facility in Kalgoorlie.

You should learn what facilities are available at Toowoomba before making silly comparisons.
First, every positive international arrival in Qld is already taken to a hospital facility regardless of being symptomatic.
Second, Toowoomba's hospital - which already has acute care capability - is being upgraded as part of the State's recently announced $1.1 billion commitment to the Darling Downs and South West Hospital and Health Services.

but hey your hate for Scomo, yet again overides your common sense.

What Scomo does speaks for itself - too little too late. He's a policy void with a record of incompetence that has lead to hundreds of deaths in aged care, and avoidable lockdowns had he accepted responsibility for international quarantine arrangements from the outset.

 

[rederob]

What was your point? And what is relevant?
You said that the feds had done nothing about Pinkemba, and put in a link that had nothing to do with Pinkemba.
End of story
Mick

From the link:

“The Queensland Government will continue to work collaboratively to progress the Commonwealth’s Pinkenba facility, but we need more options to get returning Australians home safer.”​

Would you like me to explain the point as well?

 

[sptrawler]

Wellcamp is an international standard airport and Toowoomba is a decent size city with twice the population of Bunbury. It's about as close to Brisbane as both Sunshine and Gold Coast quarantine hotels, except once built transfers will take minutes rather than hours.

But those who need acute care would have to be transferred, it doesn't make sense having it remote from the acute care

Yes, you are completely wrong as these facilities could have been in place right now had the feds had a clue about quarantine arrangements and stopped playing a blame game.

These facilities haven't been required, as we haven't had the issue, the Feds and the States have been playing Games, in W.A the State Government wanted the facility built in Busselton, it is now going to be built at Pearce air base, makes much more sense.
Unless someone in the State Government could make something out of the Busselton plan. Obviously you are familiar with the justification process, being ex Federal government.

You just don't get it - the feds should have done this in 2020 rather than fight with States, so time ran out ages ago.

I think the Feds had enough on their plate in 2020, funding a bottomless pit of State government shutdowns, guess it depends on how you look at it.

Prove the feds are actively pursuing this strategy as I have not seen any plans.

Obviously the State plans are that far advanced, they can't pull out, yet wanted the Feds to pay for it. Like I said it will be interesting when the real winners come out in a couple of years IMO.

You should learn what facilities are available at Toowoomba before making silly comparisons.
First, every positive international arrival in Qld is already taken to a hospital facility regardless of being symptomatic.
Second, Toowoomba's hospital - which already has acute care capability - is being upgraded as part of the State's recently announced $1.1 billion commitment to the Darling Downs and South West Hospital and Health Services.

You should learn that you can't ask for the Australian public taxpayer, to pay for a State brain fart, that they want the Feds, which is us taxpayers, to pay for.

What Scomo does speaks for itself - too little too late. He's a policy void with a record of incompetence that has lead to hundreds of deaths in aged care, and avoidable lockdowns had he accepted responsibility for international quarantine arrangements from the outset.

What W.A and Queensland are doing, is kill the pig with royalties by keeping mining open and keeping all the spending inside the State, which is a great play, but blaming the Feds for piss poor decisions like the Toowoomba one will backfire because it smells of shonky deals IMO.

 

[sptrawler]

From the link:

“The Queensland Government will continue to work collaboratively to progress the Commonwealth’s Pinkenba facility, but we need more options to get returning Australians home safer.”​

Would you like me to explain the point as well?

Again, it smells like someone, is buying something from someone. Or someone has something to gain, by the Toowoomba option.
If the Pinkenba facility is still going ahead, the Toowoomba one is a white elephant, or someone has something to gain, or someone has already gained it. Well that's how it sounds.

 

[rederob]

But those who need acute care would have to be transferred, it doesn't make sense having it remote from the acute care

It already exists in Toowoomba. You don't jump off a plane and need acute care anyway: everyone arriving had to show a negative result prior to boarding, so anyone infected would always be picked up in very early stages and, as I said, may be asymptomatic.

I think the Feds had enough on their plate in 2020, funding a bottomless pit of State government shutdowns, guess it depends on how you look at it.

This is 2021 - their performance has been equally inept.

You should learn that you can't ask for the Australian public taxpayer, to pay for a State brain fart, that they want the Feds, which is us taxpayers, to pay for.

The cost has been a result of federal ineptitude and avoidance of their Constitutional responsibility.

but blaming the Feds for piss poor decisions like the Toowoomba one will backfire because it smells of shonky deals IMO.

What part about the feds still not having done anything in any State to date don't you understand?
Queensland has reduced its intake of arrivals as it has reduced local hotel quarantine capacity. Wellcamp will get more Australians back home sooner and integrated more safely.

 

[sptrawler]

It already exists in Toowoomba. You don't jump off a plane and need acute care anyway: everyone arriving had to show a negative result prior to boarding, so anyone infected would always be picked up in very early stages and, as I said, may be asymptomatic.

The State Government wanted the Feds to fund it, with taxpayers money, not State money, the Feds said we will but we will put it on Federal Government land close to Brisbane, which you say is still proceeding.
So the Toowoomba one sounds like the State has already done a deal, with someone, which it has to honour and no doubt will come under scrutiny. So as I said time will tell.

This is 2021 - their performance has been equally inept.

Well it would be completely out of character, for you not to criticise the Feds, so that is becoming white noise.

The cost has been a result of federal ineptitude and avoidance of their Constitutional responsibility.

As above.

What part about the feds still not having done anything in any State to date don't you understand?
Queensland has reduced its intake of arrivals as it has reduced local hotel quarantine capacity. Wellcamp will get more Australians back home sooner and integrated more safely.

Or to put it as your mentor Sir Humphries would, and how you are trying to paint it, to discredit the Feds idea.

“Civil servants have an extraordinary genius for wrapping up a simple idea to make it sound extremely complicated.” ?

 

[mullokintyre]

To

It already exists in Toowoomba. You don't jump off a plane and need acute care anyway: everyone arriving had to show a negative result prior to boarding, so anyone infected would always be picked up in very early stages and, as I said, may be asymptomatic.

This is 2021 - their performance has been equally inept.

The cost has been a result of federal ineptitude and avoidance of their Constitutional responsibility.

What part about the feds still not having done anything in any State to date don't you understand?
Queensland has reduced its intake of arrivals as it has reduced local hotel quarantine capacity. Wellcamp will get more Australians back home sooner and integrated more safely.

In your haste to blame the feds for everything you seem to have overlooked the fact that the States demanded that each state be responsible for Quarantine from the beginning. The feds should never had agreed to it, but they did. Just look at the complete screw up that Victoria did in its Quarantine.
The ueensland state government only signed the NOU for Pinkemba 12 days ago.
Whose dragging their feet now?
The Feds were stupid to think that the states would do the cooperative thing and try to work with each other to get the best outcomesnduring this pandemic.
The biggest lie has been the bull**** statement "we are all in this together".
No chance, the states sniping at each other, sniping at the feds, the feds sniping at the states.
Everything about Phis Queensland foray into Wellcamp reeks of Politics.
All parties are to blame, the Feds, the States, the health bureacrats and the media that have feasted off the whole mess.
Blame game.
Just what we need.
And its reflected right here in this forum.
Mick

 

[sptrawler]

To

In your haste to blame the feds for everything you seem to have overlooked the fact that the States demanded that each state be responsible for Quarantine from the beginning. The feds should never had agreed to it, but they did. Just look at the complete screw up that Victoria did in its Quarantine.
The ueensland state government only signed the NOU for Pinkemba 12 days ago.
Whose dragging their feet now?
The Feds were stupid to think that the states would do the cooperative thing and try to work with each other to get the best outcomesnduring this pandemic.
The biggest lie has been the bull**** statement "we are all in this together".
No chance, the states sniping at each other, sniping at the feds, the feds sniping at the states.
Everything about Phis Queensland foray into Wellcamp reeks of Politics.
All parties are to blame, the Feds, the States, the health bureacrats and the media that have feasted off the whole mess.
Blame game.
Just what we need.
And its reflected right here in this forum.
Mick

OMG don't bust Sir Humphries bubble, he is likely to have a seizure, everything bad that is happening in the World is Scomo's fault, damn Scomo. Bushfires, global warming, vaccine hesitancy, calling for people to have AZ if it's available( oh that's ok now) it goes on and on, the white noise is deafening. ? ? ?

 

[rederob]

The State Government wanted the Feds to fund it, with taxpayers money, not State money, the Feds said we will but we will put it on Federal Government land close to Brisbane, which you say is still proceeding.

You won't accept that international quarantine arrangements have always been a federal responsibility. Morrison is the only PM to shirk this role and cost hundreds of lives as a result.

 

[sptrawler]

You won't accept that international quarantine arrangements have always been a federal responsibility. Morrison is the only PM to shirk this role and cost hundreds of lives as a result.

You wont accept it, you're the one who is saying that the Queensland Government was building the wellcamp facility, because the Feds weren't building one, then in the next post you said Pinkenba was actually proceeding.
Sir Humphrey, you are allowing your bile to override your normally astute common sense. Your tripping over your own BS.

 

[IFocus]

To

In your haste to blame the feds for everything you seem to have overlooked the fact that the States demanded that each state be responsible for Quarantine from the beginning.

Nope Morrison dumped it on the states McGowan wanted nothing to do with it and repeated that numerus times.

Robs right SP not so much... sorry SP

 

[sptrawler]

Nope Morrison dumped it on the states McGowan wanted nothing to do with it and repeated that numerus times.

Robs right SP not so much... sorry SP

That's o.k, I'm having fun. By the way thanks for jumping in to save his ar$e, good to see his fan club, punching above its weight. ?

By the way @IFocus , you are wrong, not @mullokintyre, so the smug reply is misplaced.

Why are the states and territories, and not the Commonwealth, running hotel quarantine?

The states and territories agreed to run hotel quarantine as part of their broader responsibility for public health, despite it being a federal role under the constitution. Why?

www.abc.net.au

From the article:
A deal was struck between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders.

The states and territories agreed to run hotel quarantine as part of their broader responsibility for public health, despite it being a federal role under the constitution.

The states also agreed to fund most of it.

You might find that surprising given the usual fights over money. But the states give a number of reasons why they were happy with this arrangement.

Now back on subject after that brief interlude:

McGowan wanted the Feds to build the quarantine facility at Busselton, makes sense a lot of Federal Government stimulus into the Busselton area and a free upgrade to the airport. it is being built at Pearse air base, makes sense.

IMO no doubt the Queensland government thought the same for Toowoomba, obviously they went further down the track of securing it, so it will be interesting if the media follow it up.
Who is the Wagner Corporation? They apparently own the Toowoomba airport OMG.

Maybe Scomo should have stumped up taxpayers money for it, then Sir Humphries could blame him for that. ?

Just imagine it, Why did the Scomo pay taxpayers money, to the Wagner group to buy land in the middle of nowhere, when they had crown land near Brisbane airport.

Sorry iFocus, Rob sounds like a dick, he doesn't really need your help.
If it isn't cash for carparks, it's cash for for airports, apparently one is bad, the other is good.. ?

'It's a no-brainer': Queensland goes it alone to build regional quarantine hub

Queensland is building a regional COVID-19 quarantine facility near the Wellcamp Airport, west of Brisbane, despite the federal government repeatedly rejecting the proposal.

www.abc.net.au

From the article:
The Queensland government is pushing ahead with its own regional dedicated COVID-19 quarantine facility.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced today that Cabinet has approved the project on vacant land owned by Wagner Corporation, just outside Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.
Construction started at the site near Wellcamp Airport today, with 500 beds to be available by the end of the year and a total capacity of 1,000 by March next year.

Construction firm Wagners first submitted the plan to use its Wellcamp Airport as the landing point for some of the Australians stranded overseas in January.

The financial arrangement between the state government and the Wagner family will be commercial-in-confidence,