Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

We have expanded the capacity of the national resilience facility to 2,000. That has happened. It does exist—that capacity exists at Howard Springs, and I thank Chief Minister Michael Gunner for the partnership where he has worked together with us to establish that capacity at the national resilience facility. In addition to that, I welcome the partnership I formed with Premier Andrews to ensure that we can move forward on the quarantine facility in Melbourne, where we have let the contract, and they're underway. I welcome the partnership we've established with Premier McGowan in Western Australia to see the Jandakot facility put in place. I welcome the partnership we're working on with the Queensland government on these important facilities.

The facility at Howard Springs has played an incredibly important role, especially in facilitating the return of Australians with the commercial flights that the government has been able to put on to bring Australians home when the capacity has been reduced all around the country to deal with the delta variant. As those facilitated commercial flights arrive, they are taking up the capacity, which is there at Howard Springs to support those flights. That will continue to increase in relation to the demand of commercial flights. I will ask the health minister to add further to my answer.

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