Mayor Col Murray has vowed never to put a quarantine plan before Tamworth council that would put the city at risk.
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The city is only considering - and negotiating with state government over - a plan to bring in a small number of low-risk workers like fruit pickers from non-hotspots, he said.
"I think there are a number of different discussions happening out there in the community," he said.
"There are some assumptions being made. Certainly I'm not aware of council having discussions with anyone about a quarantine hub there. I don't think it would get support. This would be decision that would have to be made by council. I don't believe there'd be any support within council about setting up a quarantine hub in the city."
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Would the mayor personally vote to use the facility in a "hotel quarantine" type arrangement?
"No, absolutely not," he said.
The mayor's comments will help quell a growing community backlash against the proposed plan to use the pilot school at the Tamworth airport.
Three councillors came out on Tuesday against the idea. They were quickly followed by Tamworth state MP Kevin Anderson.
Cr Murray said he wanted Tamworth to do its bit to clear up the backlog in hotel quarantine. But that might take the form of bringing in "low-risk" fruit pickers and agriculture workers "and nothing more than that".
"We're happy to do our share of the heavy lifting, but not at the expense via bringing a risk of introduced COVID to our community," he said.
"I'm not even sure that a quarantine hub is the right word for it. I understand the protocol for bringing in these type of workers - it's not the normal protocol. It's a much, much lower grade entry, which I think only constitutes about five days, and I think it's three negative tests.
"It's not actually quarantine hub, I don't think we should be using the word quarantine."
The Tamworth Mayor said he'd had "confidential discussions with different levels of the NSW government" but was not prepared to elaborate further than that.
He said the discussions were "at an early stage" but could possibly "progress over the short-term".
New England MP Barnaby Joyce told the Leader last week he was "trying to make Tamworth part of the solution" to the hotel quarantine bottleneck.
"We don't have to build [a quarantine site] when we have one here, and it's far enough out of town that's its perfectly sited," he said.
He said Tamworth Flight Training Centre could be used as a quarantine hub to bring Australians like Tamworth-born opthamologist Phoebe MacKenzie back home from the UK.
A Change.org petition against the idea has 881 signatures as of time of printing.
Andrew Messenger
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
