Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles says the federal government should build new COVID-19 quarantine facilities

Federal Labor says the government should create a network of purpose-built quarantine hubs for returning travellers, no matter the cost.

Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program this morning, Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles insisted the current hotel quarantine system was not up to scratch.

“There have been 21, perhaps 22, breakouts from hotel quarantine in the course of basically the last year — that’s almost one every two weeks,” Mr Marles said.

“Right now we’ve got really one fit-for-purpose facility in the country and that’s Howard Springs, and not surprisingly there hasn’t been a break out.”

He said the immense financial and mental health cost of lockdowns on businesses and individuals was far higher than the dollar value of a network of quarantine hubs.

“When it comes to the question of cost you only need to look at the enormous cost associated with locking down a capital city, which right now is Melbourne, but has been other capital cities around the country over the last six months,” Mr Marles said.

“The government’s own budget is predicting there will be such a lockdown in a capital city in this country every month … if that’s what they’re predicting and the cost associated with that, right there, is the argument for why we should be making the expense right now.”

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told Senate estimates last week that more than 350,000 people had undergone hotel quarantine in Australia since March 2020.

Of those people, only 3,900 tested positive to COVID-19.

He also said there had been 21 confirmed hotel quarantine breaches, with only six of those cases leading to community transmission of the virus.

NSW joins calls for quarantine hubs

Meanwhile, the federal government has come under increasing pressure from the states to build new quarantine facilities.

The New South Wales government has joined Queensland and Victoria in calling for its own hub, with a spokesperson saying a Commonwealth-run facility would increase its capacity to accept returning Australians.

“To put things into perspective, at least 10 such facilities as that being built in Melbourne would be required to match what NSW is already doing,” the spokesperson said.

“There are currently around 5,000 people in Hotel Quarantine in NSW. There is no capacity for the NSW Government to oversee more than this number.”

The federal government has agreed to fund the construction of a purpose-built quarantine hub in Victoria, but has been resisting calls to build one in Queensland.

The Commonwealth had argued Queensland’s proposal for a site near Toowoomba didn’t meet the necessary criteria, drawing criticism from Labor that it was playing “petty politics”.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would consider the NSW request.

“We would welcome a proposal that conforms to the very clear criteria that has been publicly set out,” the spokesman said.