Premier Mark McGowan says WA will not be paying NSW’s hotel quarantine bill

One state has borne the brunt of a social media tantrum from WA Premier Mark McGowan after he took offence to a request for payment.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has thrown a tantrum on social media over the NSW government’s attempt to bill him for hotel quarantine.

The Premier posted a photo of the tax invoice being shredded to his Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon and triumphantly announced the state would “not be paying”.

The Facebook dummy spit came after the NSW government billed the other states for bearing the burden of quarantining the majority of returning Australian travellers during the pandemic.

Queensland has also ripped up their $30m bill but Victoria, which has twice suspended its own hotel quarantine program due to coronavirus outbreaks, has committed to paying.

“You may have heard about the ridiculous attempt by the NSW government to bill other states for the cost of their hotel quarantine system,” Mr McGowan wrote.

“WA will not be paying.

“NSW wants everyone to think that they’re the only state doing their bit to bring Aussies home.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said his state will not be paying the NSW government's hotel quarantine bill. Picture: Facebook

“But the fact is that WA, outside of the current, temporary reduction, has been taking the biggest per-capita share of returning travellers. As of March, we’ll be taking the most once again.”

Mr McGowan claimed the NSW government thought they were “above everyone else”.

“But we are all Australians, and we all have a duty to help safely process returning Australians,” he said.

“Western Australia has had a significant number of NSW residents complete their hotel quarantine in our state, as well as people from every other state and territory.

“Just like some Western Australians have completed theirs elsewhere.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan announced the move on Facebook. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Philip Gostelow

“We also, of course, never sent NSW a bill for the pain and hurt caused when their government let the virus run rampant off the Ruby Princess.”

Mr McGowan said his state would continue to take Australians through their hotel quarantine system regardless of their final destination.

He also claimed NSW was billing other states to fix their budget “mess”.

“It’s not Western Australia’s responsibility to fix their budget issues,” Mr McGowan said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said it would be disappointing if the other states didn’t pay their way as her state had welcomed back 125,000 Australians during the pandemic, of which 45 per cent weren’t from NSW.

The photo posted by Mr McGowan shows the bill issued by NSW to Western Australia to be about $7.3m.

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