Hotel quarantine limits has sparked a tit-for-tat between Dan Andrews and the NSW premier

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian branded Dan Andrews “pretty good at spin” after he boasted that Victoria’s quarantine system was the nation’s best.

Victoria has abandoned its promise to quarantine more people arriving from overseas, with Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian again trading barbs.

The NSW Premier on Wednesday branded Mr Andrews “pretty good at spin” after he boasted that Victoria’s quarantine system was the nation’s best.

Mr Andrews halted plans to increase the number of weekly arrivals from 1120 to 1310 from Monday after two new cases — and five in a fortnight — emerged within hotel quarantine.

The move breaks a national cabinet agreement between the states to lift the capacity of hotel quarantine in unison on February 15.

“I think success is measured by how many people you’re able to bring in and how you can keep the community safe,” Ms Berejiklian told Sydney radio.

“All I’ll say is he’s pretty good at spin”.

It comes as New South Wales plans to increase capacity to 3000, Queensland to 1000 and South Australia to 530.

Since March 2020 New South Wales has been shouldering the burden of return travellers with tens of thousands of Victorians quarantining in Sydney.

Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews.

Despite the new cases and move to scrap the capacity increase, Mr Andrews said there was “nothing wrong” with Victoria’s hotel quarantine.

Instead, he blamed the infectivity and unpredictability of the mutant UK and South African strains.

Health authorities have confirmed that Britain’s B117 strain is behind most of the five transmissions within the state’s quarantine hotels.

“This is a wicked enemy made more difficult by the fact it is changing,” Mr Andrews said.

“We will not be increasing to 1310 arrivals per week as was planned from Monday.

“That has been paused and we will have further announcements to make about when and if we can make that jump.”

The Premier also batted away Ms Berejiklian’s attack.

“I am not interested in what’s going on in other states, other than what might affect us,” Mr Andrews said.

“I have no interest in getting in an argument with Gladys and I will somehow recover from that barb.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

A senior federal government source on Wednesday remarked that if Mr Andrews was “so confident” in his systems he would up the caps to the same levels as NSW.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he would not “rank” the states’ quarantine systems after Mr Andrews boasted his hotels were leading the way.

“We think all of the states and territories are doing well on this front,” Mr Hunt said.

“I won’t try to rank them.

“The fact that there is an individual case because of a touch, a breath, a surface, that is part of the risk of dealing with the greatest global pandemic in 100 years.”

As of Friday 211,000 people have returned to Australia since March 2020.