State government starts issuing invoices to travellers for stays in hotel quarantine
Despite strict conditions for entering the state and hefty hotel quarantine fees, a slew non-essential travellers still racked up a $500k quarantine bill. SEE THE FIGURES >>
Tasmania
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MORE than 180 travellers have been sent a combined half a million dollars’ worth of bills for their stays in Tasmania’s quarantine hotels.
The state government has started sending invoices to people for their 14-day stints in quarantine, in a move designed to minimise the risk of spread of coronavirus.
The policy was in place from July 31, with all non-essential travellers arriving in Tasmania who were required to quarantine in hotels charged at an individual rate of $2800.
Couples were billed at a rate of $3800 and families with children up to a maximum of $4800.
The fee includes meals.
Before that, the state government foot the bill for all travellers’ stays.
Travellers were directed to stay in hotel quarantine if they were deemed to be non-essential and could not do their quarantine at a Tasmanian residence.
The Mercury previously reported those travellers could not be billed until legislation giving effect to the policy was given royal assent and then gazetted.
A Department of Communities spokesman said invoices were sent out from October 20, with 183 people being billed to date.
The cost of those invoices totals $483,400.
Forty-three travellers have applied for financial assistance relating to their hotel quarantine bills, with 27 of the applications being approved.
More than 1000 people have come into hotel quarantine since the policy was introduced.
On Monday, Tasmania’s borders reopened to Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.
The state could open to NSW as soon as next week, while a decision about Victoria — which has brought under control a large-scale COVID-19 outbreak — is yet to be made.
As of Friday, there was a total of 417 people in hotel quarantine at nine hotels across Tasmania — three each in the South, North and North West of the state.
As at September 30, the state government had spent $20.5 million on its hotel quarantine policy, including security and transport costs.
Last month, the government advertised for the recruitment of two new highly-paid site manager roles to oversee the quarantine hotels.
One would be responsible for quarantine hotels in the north and north west, and the other for facilities in the south, with an annual salary range of between $92,000 and $105,000.
Originally published as State government starts issuing invoices to travellers for stays in hotel quarantine