Federal Government Stands Up 500-Bed Quarantine Facility Within Days For Six Returning Cruise Passengers; Cites Logistical Complexity On Remote Housing

PERTH – The Albanese government on Monday confirmed that six people repatriated from a hantavirus-affected cruise ship in the Canary Islands will spend three weeks in the 500-bed Bullsbrook quarantine facility north of Perth, originally constructed for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health Minister Mark Butler told reporters the operation was “complex,” but that the legal, logistical and accommodation arrangements had been finalised within days of the diagnosis being confirmed.

In separate but unrelated developments, the relevant Commonwealth agency continues to manage a Closing the Gap housing target — a 9 per cent reduction in overcrowding by 2031 — which is presently off track and was last reviewed in a process described in the relevant annual report as “ongoing.”

Asked whether the rapid-deployment capacity demonstrated by the Bullsbrook operation could be applied to the thousands of additional dwellings required to meet remote housing demand, a department spokesperson did not respond by deadline. The spokesperson did, however, forward a brochure about a forthcoming consultation process scheduled for the second half of 2026.

The 500-bed facility, originally built in 2022, has now been used to quarantine six people. The number of First Nations people currently waiting on social housing in the Northern Territory alone is in the thousands.