Federal Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry has called upon the Queensland Government to rule out moving returning travellers to camps in mining communities to undertake their mandatory 14-day quarantine for the UK strain of the COVID-19.
Ms Landry said she doesn’t want to see vulnerable regional communities potentially being put in harm’s way.
“I am wholeheartedly against moving potential cases of the UK strain of COVID-19 to quarantine in mining camps in regional communities.
“While there is still a great deal of uncertainty around the UK strain of COVID-19, this should not be considered. It would be a very irresponsible action to take by the Queensland Government, given how well regional communities have fared compared to the cities in terms of numbers of COVID-19 cases,” Ms Landry said.
Ms Landry said the metropolitan areas are more capable of handling quarantines of COVID-19.
“This isn’t a ‘cities versus the bush’ argument. I don’t want to see regional communities potentially harmed at the expense of the cities, especially when cities are more well-equipped to handle COVID outbreaks.
“Metropolitan areas are where the majority of medical resources and medical personnel are, based on population size. Regional communities have difficulty accessing health specialists at the best of times even without a pandemic, so it would be counter intuitive to potentially put regional Queenslanders potentially at risk without the best medical resources available to minimise the risk of an outbreak.”
Ms Landry also said mining and resources communities have been keeping Australia afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Mining and agriculture have also put us through COVID-19 financially and it would be counter-productive to willingly put these industries potentially at risk.
“If the Queensland Government decides to do this, I will be fighting them every step of the way,” Ms Landry said.
