Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Tyrrell, it wasn't your first speech but it was a very good speech. It was very gracious, and I'm sure you'll do your party proud and continue Senator Lambie's great work, especially in relation to veterans.

On 28 July 2022 the Deputy Premier of Queensland, Steven Miles, announced that the Wellcamp quarantine facility would be closed from 1 August 2022. In the announcement there was absolutely no reference whatsoever to the cost of the facility. What was the cost? The cost of this facility was $223.5 million, a staggering $325,000 for every person who used that facility, at a time when there is chronic homelessness in this country and in my home state of Queensland—a dearth, a shortage, of housing assets. I checked on the internet. That equates to something like the cost of 5,437 apartments or houses currently on the market in Queensland—5½ thousand residences you could buy with that $223.5 million. It is the worst example of pandemic politics that I have seen.

This facility was doomed from the start. Why? It wasn't near an international passenger airport. It wasn't near where most of the hospitals in the south-east corner are located. And the Commonwealth was building the Pinkenba facility. This was rank politics—putting politics before people. In October 2024, in the next Queensland election— (Time expired)