Debt collectors chasing 5000 for unpaid hotel COVID-19 quarantine

Returned travellers are refusing to foot the bill for their two-week quarantine, with many adamant they won’t be paying.

Quarantined international travellers board a coach outside the Holiday Inn in Melbourne. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Returned travellers are refusing to foot the bill for their two-week quarantine, with many adamant they won’t be paying on principle, as debt collectors chase more than 5000 people for unpaid fees.

While some travellers say they are unable to afford the average $5000 charge for a family of four, others are furious they are being made to pay for what they perceive as government bungles.

Some claim the hotel facilities are so appalling that no one forced to endure the conditions should have to pay.

Michael Ledsome, who paid more than $20,000 for plane tickets home for his family from ­Turkey, is refusing pay his quarantine bill, saying that while he’s in a ­financial position to do so: “It’s a matter of principle, it’s my right to refuse to pay.”

While intending to return home before a July deadline, Mr Ledsome said he and his family were instructed by the Australian embassy in Ankara to not risk international travel.

He also complained that his pregnant wife and three-year child — who left for Perth before him — had been given prior permission to quarantine at home, but on arrival were told to enter a hotel quarantine with “no opening windows or proper medical support”.

Other people have argued that work commitments should ­exempt them from paying.

A chef who works on ships around the world for up to three months at a time said he returned home for quarantine in October.

Brisbane quarantine hotel The Grand Chancellor. Picture: John Gass

“I’m basically like a fly-in, fly-out. I need to keep the family fed and pay my mortgage,” he said.

While he supported hotel quarantine, he said: “I find it crazy that hotel quarantine is not tax ­deductible. I’ve received three warning notices already and I’m not paying.”

Hundreds of returned ­travellers say they are unable to pay, having spent tens of thousands of dollars on overpriced flights.

But the NSW government has rejected the majority of excuses offered and ordered debt collectors to recover the money.

As of February 19, a total of 5264 debt recovery orders ­covering 7214 ­returned travellers had been issued, valued at $16.4m, a spokesman for Revenue NSW said.

“It is only fair to the rest of the taxpayers in NSW that you pay this invoice,” the spokesman said.

The Victorian government has only recently initiated its own ­invoicing process.

By the end of December, South Australia issued almost $10m in invoices, of which $6m remains unpaid, though technically not yet overdue.

Queensland had ­issued 18,442 invoices to February 12 and ­received almost 6000 sub­missions for waivers.