Australia news live: questions over India Covid test results as repatriation flights under way

Well, the problem with it is, we never had a proposal. And the details, when you compare what has been put forward by the Victorian government is chalk and cheese.

Victoria’s put a very comprehensive proposal to us. Something we can actually work with. And we are.

One of the biggest difficulties with that proposal [is] it’s not near a major capital city where there’s a major hospital. That’s the big problem with it, amongst many others. The idea you can put it in the desert somewhere, I know that Toowoomba isn’t a desert, but they need to be close to major capital city airports. They’re coming to Brisbane. That’s a very long trek to Toowoomba …

There’s an opportunity to supplement what is happening in hotel quarantine, well, that’s what the Victorian proposal is about. It’s not replacing what is happening with hotel quarantine in Victoria. We still couldn’t get straight answers on whether this proposal in Toowoomba was about replacing hotel quarantine or supplementing hotel quarantine. So there was just not enough detail to assess this.

I think it’s reasonable to say it hasn’t been stacking up very well, particularly when you compare it to a very comprehensive and well thought through proposal from the Victorian government.