The Age Editorial has demanded the $580 million 1000-bed quarantine hub in Mickleham Victoria be shut down as it is no longer needed:
We are unlikely to get any recognition that it was a poor use of taxpayer money. What we do get is optimistic claims that it could yet be used to house Ukrainian refugees (when?) or could become an infectious diseases hospital (funded by whom?); that it’s been “invaluable” for quarantining members of the community; and that the federal government should have presciently begun work on the camp even before the pandemic struck. “It would have been extraordinarily handy to have two years ago,” said the then health minister, Martin Foley, in April…
But we have to ask: why is it still operational at all? Pack it up and shut it down.
