Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The infection which sparked Melbourne's latest outbreak was caused by aerosol spread of the virus in hotel quarantine in Adelaide, the latest in a series of outbreaks caused by poor ventilation in hotel quarantine. Given the Prime Minister's refusal to create a safe national quarantine system, why has the Prime Minister failed to implement strong national standards on ventilation to prevent these repeated outbreaks from hotel quarantine?

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

I don't accept the assertions made by the member in posing that question. The matters involving the source of this latest infection have been considered by the South Australia state government, and I note that they have just noted that their protocols were followed.

I also note that the recommendations that were provided by the Halton review to establish a national facility were adopted by national cabinet and, in particular, by the Commonwealth government. On the facility at Howard Springs, at a cost of some $1.5 billion—to pick up on a question that was asked yesterday—I am advised that their capacity will be at 2,000 this month. That capacity won't be realised for some time yet in terms of the number of people there, but that capacity has been reached—to go from 850 to 2,000. That was the recommendation of the review on international quarantine facilities around the country. The member will be aware that, a number of weeks ago, the Victorian government put forward what I think is a very favourable proposal. One of the important things about that proposal is that it does not propose that hotel quarantine be discontinued. It says that this facility be put in place in addition to hotel quarantine facilities. So we will continue to implement those recommendations from the review, and we will continue to work with the states and territories to support them with the work that they do and, indeed, undertake the work that we are responsible for.