Queensland taxpayers have spent more than $220 million setting up and running the controversial privately owned Wellcamp quarantine facility on the Darling Downs that will be mothballed within days.
Details of a secret deal to lease the site for about $150 million were revealed in a budget estimates hearing at Parliament today.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said in total $223.5 million had been spent on the facility when capital expenditure and operating costs are included.
In revealing the costs, Mr Miles said the Wellcamp facility would not be needed for COVID quarantine beyond the start of August.
"With increased vaccination coverage and community acceptance of COVID-19, the need for dedicated isolation facilities or for any contingency capacity to have been held has decreased," he said.
"The QRAC (Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre) will be placed in care and maintenance under similar arrangements to those in Howard Springs in the Northern Territory.
"It will cease hosting guests from August 1 but will remain available should the pandemic response settings change."
Since opening to guests on February 5 this year, 730 people have quarantined or isolated at the Wellcamp facility.
The state government’s lease for Wellcamp will run until April next year.
He said he had advised the federal government the quarantine facility being built at Pinkenba also would not be required given there was no longer a need for it.
Earlier this year, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed the state had contributed $48.8 million to help build the Wellcamp facility, which is privately owned by the Wagner Corporation.
The state government signed a 12-month lease to use the 1,000 bed facility for COVID quarantine with the total cost to operate and lease the centre unknown until today after the government cited commercial in confidence reasons for not releasing the costs.
The government also paid an additional $9 million to Compass Group up to June 30 for the facility's management that covered services like catering, cleaning and security.
Aspen Medical was awarded a contract to provide on-site medical services at Wellcamp, which has so far cost $16 million – it was allocated a maximum contract cap of $108 million.
In a statement, Queensland Health said it was working to end the contract with Aspen Medical and there would be no additional costs for taxpayers due to the early termination.
Mr Miles also revealed the state had paid the quarantine management taskforce – which oversees Queensland's entire quarantine system including hotel quarantine — $14.3 million to June 30.
At an estimates hearing yesterday, Acting Auditor-General Karen Johnson confirmed the Queensland Audit Office (QAO) was continuing to look at the costs and contracts related to the facility after receiving a request from Deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie in February.
Mr Miles defended how long it took the government to disclose the lease costs.
"The commercial-in-confidence arrangements … was a condition of the initial contract with Wagners, it allowed them to negotiate with their providers which was important to them," he said.
"However we always intended to properly report these figures in our budget papers and in our financial statements.
"Now that we are in an estimates process looking at those papers, it seemed to me entirely appropriate for us to disclose, more fulsomely, especially now that all of those contract negotiations have concluded and in the context of us providing the mothballing date of the facility."
LNP hits out at 'Wellcamp waste'
During the estimates hearing Deputy LNP Leader Jarrod Bleijie asked Mr Miles why taxpayers were paying to lease the facility until next April, if no-one was staying there beyond next week.
Mr Miles said the facility would continue to be available for quarantine if needed in the future.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the spend on the Wellcamp facility wasn't value for money due to the state not owning the facility and "handing back the keys months early".
"The Wellcamp waste will forever be remembered as the price Queenslanders pay when this government prioritises politics over the genuine needs of Queenslanders," he said.
"The Wellcamp waste happened while the state government was still paying tens of millions of dollars for empty hotel rooms and with a Commonwealth owned facility coming online at Pinkenba.
"A good plan for quarantine was vital. This wasn't it."
