Coronavirus Australia: Victoria paid NSW $58.5 million to quarantine Victorians in 2020

The Victorian government paid NSW nearly $60m as it investigated how its own program seeded the state’s second wave.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: David Crosling

The Victorian government paid NSW nearly $60m to quarantine the state’s citizens in hotel quarantine while it investigated how its own program seeded the state’s second wave.

This was in addition to the $195m Victoria paid for the state’s first version of the program in 2020, including $78m when the program was suspended between June and December.

The latest iteration of the hotel quarantine program is costing taxpayers $377m, or more than $1m a day.

The Victorian government has paid $58.5m including GST to NSW for hosting more than 23,000 in hotel quarantine between March and December 2020.

NSW charges returning travellers $3000 for an individual, $4000 a couple and $500 a child, but this does not cover the entire cost of the quarantine stay; the balance is paid by state or territory governments.

A NSW Treasury spokes­woman said the cost of quaran­tining residents in 2021 had yet to be determined after Victoria’s hotel quarantine program was ­suspended in February following an infection control breach at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport.

“As at 30 June, 2021, Victoria has repaid all outstanding quarantine fees for which it had been invoiced by NSW,” she said.

“Invoices for the most recent period are currently being finalised, and NSW continues to work with Victoria to determine interstate reimbursement of these costs.”

In 2020, Victoria’s hotel quarantine program was suspended in June after genomics analysis linked nearly 100 per cent of the state’s second wave cases to infection control breaches at Rydges on Swanston and the Stamford Plaza.

A $5.7m inquiry headed by former judge Jennifer Coate examined the failures of hotel quarantine as a surge in case numbers claimed the lives of 801 people and sentenced Melbourne to 111-days in lockdown.

The Victorian government spent at least $12.3m on legal representation during the hotel quarantine inquiry, some of which was covered by insurance.

On Thursday, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said it was unclear how an alternative accommodation hub to be established in the far north Melbourne suburb of Mickleham would impact the state government’s contracts for hotel quarantine.

“When these new ­facilities come online at Mickleham, that will form part of those arrangements … what the consequences of that are for other parts of the hotel quarantine system, we’ll work through.”

The federal government has said it hopes a 1000-bed facility at Mickleham, estimated to cost hundreds of millions to build, will be operational by the end of 2021.

Victoria has been calling for months for an alternative to hotel quarantine, with the state pushing for a recent decision by national cabinet to halve the number of international arrivals allowed into Australia.

A Victorian government spokesman said the state had not received an invoice from any state or territory other than NSW for quarantining returning travellers.

“We all know hotels are built for tourists, not for managing highly infectious diseases,” he said.

“Purpose-built, outdoor facilities will make quarantine safer in this country.”

Opposition community safety spokesman David Southwick said the Andrews Labor government had repeatedly failed to get hotel quarantine right.

“Under Labor, Victorians have paid twice for hotel quarantine,” he said.

“Once for Daniel Andrews botched program and again for NSW to host the returned travellers that Victoria couldn’t.”