NSW Premier calls for Queensland’s $150 Covid tests to be subsidised

The NSW Premier has called for National Cabinet to step in as Queensland prepares to slug travellers $150 to enter the state.

An “astonishing” Queensland policy which demands tourists fork out $150 for a Covid test to enter the state has drawn criticism from the NSW Premier and a top doctor.

All travellers from declared hotspots like NSW must test negative within 72 hours of entering Queensland when the state’s border reopens from December 17.

But while cheap rapid antigen tests which can be bought from supermarkets or pharmacies are permitted for entry into Victoria, tourists into Queensland must pay a private lab for a PCR test.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Qld Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk. Picture: Peter Wallis

Dominic Perrottet on Tuesday called on national cabinet to act and subsidise the cross-border PCR tests.

Mr Perrottet told Sydney radio National Cabinet should intervene to find a way to subsidise testing costs for travellers heading into Queensland, similar to the 50-50 split between state and federal governments to fund mass Covid testing during the pandemic.

“There needs to be a paper taken to national cabinet … if these onerous testing regimes are in place, someone needs to pick up the bill … (subsidising the tests) would be the common sense approach,” Mr Perrottet told 2GB’s Ray Hadley.

“There’s going to have to be a substantive subsidy that continues to a short to medium term as we move through this phase.”

“You can’t open domestic travel in circumstances where you’re slugging people a couple of hundred bucks, they just won’t travel.”

Travellers will need to fork out for the test if they want to cross the Queensland border once it reopens to road travellers from December 17. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Covering Covid-19 PCR tests via Medicare has already cost the taxpayer about $1.75bn.

Travellers can’t use pop-up Covid clinics to get a test for domestic travel either, as the federal health department has confirmed PCR tests solely for domestic travel requirements were not “clinically relevant” and didn’t fall under the rules for Medicare funding.

A family of two adults and two children could end up paying around $580 just to enter Queensland - more than the cost of four $99 return airfares from Sydney to the Gold Coast.

Mr Perrottet criticised the plan to make travellers cough up for a Covid test, claiming it would scare tourists away from the sunshine state because testing would cost more than travelling there.

Mr Perrottet said national cabinet should work to subsidise the tests.

He said a solution would “hopefully” come before the December 17 border opening date.

“To pay $150 bucks to go up there, for many people that’s going to be a cost they don’t want to pay and they probably won’t go (to Queensland),” Mr Perrottet said.

“When someone‘s flying interstate on a flight for less than 100 bucks and paying close to $200 for testing, you can’t have domestic travel working that way.”

It comes as federal Health Minister Greg Hunt wrote to Queensland officials overnight, calling on the Sunshine State’s Health Minister Yvette D’Ath to “reconsider” the measure.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Former Australian deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth also weighed in on the controversial border rule this morning, declaring he thought the much cheaper rapid antigen tests would do the job just fine.

“They‘re not needed, I think rapid antigen tests would be more than sufficient,” Dr Coatsworth said.

“Getting somebody to pay for PCR tests is just an added burden.”

He added: “It is a little astonishing that a government would charge the public for the same PCR tests when they’ve been getting money from the federal government for them over the past 18 months. I don’t think that’s probably the right way to do things.”