Prime Minister urges Dan Andrews to accept travellers

Scott Morrison has urged Victoria to reopen the state to international plane arrivals. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jenny Evans

Scott Morrison has urged Victoria to reopen the state to international plane arrivals but Daniel Andrews has resisted pressure to name a start date.

Victoria has been debating several options for dealing with hotel quarantine that include ­potentially further delaying a ­restart after the most ­recent five-day lockdown.

But the Prime Minister ­declared on Friday that Victoria had committed to national cabinet to resume international fights into Melbourne as soon as possible.

The Weekend Australian has been told relations between Victoria and the federal government have been increasingly fractious and that the state would not be pushed into making a decision it was not ready to execute.

Victoria still favours a form of regional hotel quarantine, modelled in part on the Northern ­Territory’s Howard Springs centre, with talks centred around a project on greenfields land near Avalon Airport outside Geelong.

There are also increasing concerns about the future of city-based hotel accommodation, with an expectation of a sharp shift back to business models that are not predicated on housing international arrivals.

This could lead to significant amounts of hotel stock being ­removed for quarantine use.

“There is no real trust between the two governments. Morrison’s people spend their lives backgrounding against us, so there is not much goodwill,” a senior Victorian government source said.

Mr Morrison said on Friday it was his clear position that Victoria should take overseas arrivals again, having suspended the policy on February 13.

He said that former senior ­bureaucrat Jane Halton, who had recently reviewed the hotel quarantine system, had recently visited Victoria and supported the way the system was operated.

“And so we look forward to Victoria resuming that as soon as possible,” Mr Morrison said after national cabinet. “Because that would obviously add to the ability to bring Australians home. The second biggest number of Australians on that list are from Victoria; over 10,000 Victorians are wanting to come home. So I am sure they will welcome their home states receiving the flights ASAP.”

Mr Morrison said Mr Andrews had told national cabinet that he was not in a position to name a date for when arrivals could ­return through Melbourne.

Victoria stopped international arrivals amid concern about ­another outbreak and the ability of the state to process ill passengers.

The Prime Minister said NSW was now taking more than 3000 passengers a week, Western Australia and Queensland more than 1000 and South Australia 530. There were plans to increase the Howard Springs centre from 850 people a week to 2500.

Accommodation Association chief Dean Long said there had been a significant number of ­hotels that had stopped conducting hotel quarantine, with Victoria being a significant issue because clusters were being named after businesses, and therefore sullying the brand.

“It’s a very Victorian issue,’’ he said, adding the policy was “fundamentally wrong”.

Mr Long said that as the Australian hotel sector became more profitable in the wake of the pandemic, there could be less incentive for businesses to take quarantine passengers. But he warned the end of government financial ­assistance for workers such as JobKeeper could have a huge impact on businesses. It was possible some would close.

Without some form of workable tourism stimulus package, there would be job losses.