LIFT-OFF FROM LOCKDOWN?
As Victorians face the state’s latest 5-day lockdown, Polwarth MP Richard Riordan, the Assistant Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Agriculture, and Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur have come together to back a proposal for a brand new solution to Victoria’s continuing Hotel Quarantine failures.
The MPs backed Avalon Airport CEO Justin Giddings’ comments on 3AW yesterday, in which the airport boss suggested a facility at the airport would be “a really good idea…” He noted that those arriving could simply “…walk across into accommodation which is designed to allow you to go outside into the fresh air… and spend your 14 days there, have your testing isolated completely away from anybody else…” [Interview in full: https://www.3aw.com.au/airport-boss-says-youd-be-pretty-crazy-to-book-a-holiday-months-in-advance/ ]
Mr Giddings suggested the proposal would “allow more people to get home, but also fruit pickers, international students…” and that the airport would be happy to “work with everybody” to make it happen, saying “[to] give confidence to the community is really important.”
McArthur and Riordan have demanded the Andrews Government replace existing unsatisfactory Hotel Quarantine sites in metropolitan Melbourne with designated facilities, isolated from the community, employing dedicated staff on FIFO (Fly-in-fly-out) shift patterns.
Mrs McArthur said: “This is an important idea. The airport brings a secure, segregated environment, with sufficient land capacity to operate an entirely safe and isolated quarantine facility and represents a real opportunity to transform Victoria’s approach to Hotel Quarantine.” “It’s a highly secure environment, distant from the densely populated CBD yet with direct access to the Princes Highway – just 50km south of Melbourne and 15km north of Geelong.”
“The airport could assist in processing arrivals and housing international guests, flying many in directly with immediate access to a large acreage of fully-serviced greenfield sites and bespoke accommodation solutions.
Mr Riordan said:
“Daniel Andrews needs to ditch his stubborn, arrogant approach, which has caused so much pain to the people of Victoria. He must take this offer seriously and immediately investigate the Avalon Airport proposal.
“This latest lockdown won’t be the last if the Premier fails to accept that other people sometimes have better ideas than he does.”
He highlighted the wider problem:
“The Premier might say that yesterday’s announcement is a short-term circuit breaker, but to anyone with a brain it’s obvious we need a higher-volume and longer-term solution. And his Government has consistently demonstrated its total inability to properly manage hotel quarantine in existing CBD venues.
“Quarantine is here to stay, for months if not years. Infection numbers remain high globally, and we now see increasing indications that mutations will lower vaccine efficacy.” “The PM confirmed this week that quarantine will continue for returning Australians ‘until further notice’, and the Chief Medical Officer has made clear that even those already vaccinated will not be exempt.”
He added: “We now need to plan properly for the future, not continue patching up the Andrews’ Government’s failed model each time a new problem comes up.”
The MPs noted the more than 36,000 Australian residents on waiting-lists to return, according to the Federal Government’s December figures.
Mrs McArthur said: “Victoria is not pulling its weight. New South Wales is still receiving more than twice as many returning Australians each week, and many thousands of Victorians would not be back home now if were left to Daniel Andrews’ efforts.”
“We can’t afford to learn on the job. Despite all the precautions already in place, quarantine workers infected in recent weeks have left work and gone home to their families and communities, exposing hundreds of new contacts and potentially beginning new infection chains.
“This latest five day lockdown is the price we are paying for that – and who knows how long the next one will last. An endless stop-start cycle of lockdowns would bring financial ruin and emotional torture.”
“It’s just too great a risk. We can continue to fiddle around the edges, experimenting with increasing room spacing, adjusting air-conditioning and demanding more testing of off-duty staff, inadequate mask wearing, or we can act now to pre-empt the next problems and adopt a bold new solution.”
Riordan and McArthur pointed to the effectiveness of the Northern Territory’s National Resilience Centre in Howard Springs, which is undergoing expansion as the result of its success to date.
Mr Riordan said: “Avalon Airport presents a great opportunity for Victoria to provide a single point of entry. Returning travellers can be flown into the site, received by dedicated staff, and moved minimal distances to the accommodation provided. The airport connection is important, but importantly the site is also outside of any residential area and in reasonable proximity to a large workforce and necessary infrastructure.”
“The designated facility could be designed to include a quarantine centre that can be reconfigured for tourist accommodation when COVID-19 is no longer an issue, and would include accommodation for staff onsite during their shift period.”
“Removing the risk from within the community must be the best long-term solution to international reception centre Quarantine. It is perfectly possible to arrange, for example two-week on, two-week off shift patterns for workers, as already happens in many industries.”
Mrs McArthur noted the disastrous cancellation of the Bells Beach Rip Curl Pro as the latest regional casualty of Victoria’s inadequate system:
“Western Victoria is heavily reliant on international tourism and the export of first class food, horticulture and livestock to the rest of the world. It is absolutely vital for the ongoing viability and sustainability of our agriculture and tourism industries that the Andrews Government establish the greater capacity of international movement of people and produce. We also need to bring in desperately needed farm workers, not via Tasmania but direct into Victoria.
She concluded: “Regional Victoria is wearing the pain from the Premier’s failed Melbourne-centric approach to Hotel Quarantine. So we’re now offering him a solution. He needs to look beyond the tram-tracks for a change, and do it now so we can restart our economy, reopen society, and move back towards some semblance of normal life.”
13 February 2020