It’s official: poor quarantine capacity behind Indian flight ban

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Following questioning from ALP senator Katy Gallagher at the Sentate Select Committee on COVID-19, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, conceded that the Indian travel ban was explicitly linked to Australia’s limited quarantine capacity (video below):

Katy Gallagher: “Dr Kelly. Surely the ban would not have been needed if we had adequate quarantine capacity. The two things are linked, aren’t they”.

Professor Paul Kelly: “We are in a very off the chart situation now than when we designed the quarantine facilities to use. I said, there were 137 cases from India that had come in the last month. That is much higher than any other time this year and most of last year. So, we’ve been coping with what we’ve coped with, we’ve got various plans there with the states and territories on their caps, and they are the ones that are best look at what the public health risk is”.

Katy Gallagher: “But do you accept, I know you are trying to avoid the question. But do you accept that the travel ban is linked to quarantine capacity?”.

Professor Paul Kelly: “Yes it is”.

So there you have it straight from the horses mouth. The Morrison Government’s reluctance to build national quarantine facilities modelled on Howard Springs near Darwin is preventing Australian citizens from returning home, as well as contributing to regular outbreaks from unsuitable hotel quarantine facilities located in our capital cities.

The fact that Indian arrivals will be housed exclusively in Howard Springs once flights resume is also recognition that this single national ‘open air’ facility is best practice.

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Basically, the Morrison Government gambled that building national quarantine facilities was not a good investment because, by the time they were built, the pandemic would be over.

This gamble has clearly failed, leaving Australian citizens stranded abroad and the country vulnerable to continued outbreaks and lockdowns via the porous hotel quarantine system.

The Morrison Government has failed on quarantine, just as it has failed on the vaccine rollout.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.