Each of these facilities cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build.A 'death sentence' or 'back to normal life'? Scrapping of COVID-19 isolation rules sparks debateVictoria’s Mickleham facility, on the outskirts of Melbourne, reportedly cost $580 million to build, while Western Australia's Bullsbrook quarantine centre, about 40km northeast of Perth, reportedly cost $400 million.
According to a statement from the Victorian state government, the Mickleham facility can be considered for other potential uses a few months ahead of schedule, including emergency accommodation ahead of summer. Similarly, the Queensland government says the QRAC has been placed in care and maintenance but will remain available should the pandemic response settings change, and alternate uses for the facility will be investigated.
Professor Tim Harcourt, professor and chief economist at the University of Technology Sydney, says there are a few angles to consider when evaluating whether the hundreds of millions of dollars was money well spent.
I am glad they were built. Remember the question on the next pandemic is not 'if...' but 'when will it happen?'
First things first .. those politicians must be jailed for all the financial lost to the nation and pile up of debt on the tax payers
Don’t worry - they’ll be needing them again soon enough..
Use it for the homeless
Ask politicians to stay there
They could be repurposed as homeless shelters or something like that perhaps?
They are living monuments to the policies of Australian state and federal governments that locked Australian citizens out of their own country during the COVID-19 pandemic. strandedAussies remember
Low-sec prisons for low-risk offenders, although then what will we do when the next pandemic inevitably trundles along...
SQUID. GAME.
Damned if you do or don't. How about temporary refugee accommodation prior to resettlement? Any spare capacity could also be used as a temporary women's shelter. I am sure folks can come up with other beneficial and worthy uses.
Should still use them for refugees and processing them for health checks 💁🏻♀️
These facilities built with taxpayers money must not be wasted! Could they be used for mental health patients? Temporary accommodation for refugees and/or the homeless? Pls keep them in case we need quarantine again!
Homeless ?
Perhaps if we had had them ready to begin with, our recent and current Covid experience would have been different. At least we are now prepared for the next pandemic episode.
Use it to accommodate the homeless. We will see a sharp increase under the current Labor government. Higher interest rate rise in a generation thanks to Albo.
Low cost housing
People who reckon these would help the homeless, get a grip. The camps are demountable, as in temporary, and 500 beds in far flung locations only pose accessibility problems.
Anti vaxer re-education camps? 😂😂😂
Well, homelessness is at record highs, so . . .
Money should have been spent on upgrading hospitals.
All international arrivals should be quarantined for two weeks, no exceptions.
We could use them to house flood victims and homeless people.
Keep them; this won’t be the last pandemic we face, they’ll be needed again.
Can you imagine this money is spent on REAL infra or just to ease down these crazy high food and fuel prices? Absolute disgrace and waste of OUR taxpayers money. 😢
Maybe if they hadn't built them too late to be of use & with No Restrictions & letting Covid run free of course they have no use.
They are built in LABOR GOVT STATES. They will not know but a complete waste of TAX Payers money.
Maybe we could lock Gladys, Perrotwat and Scomo in there for blowing any chance we had to contain this
It was always all about politics & control. DanielAndrewsMP governed by opinion poll & to exercise & implement control. I dare say it won’t happen as enough have been hoodwinked/live on the public teat but AndrewsMustGo
We've got a homeless problem, haven't we?
…..as widely predicted at the time. The fact they were clamoured for because of party politics makes the waste all the worse
Anastasia and Dan really
Why can this country only build public housing when it's used for locking people up?
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