NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says the Queensland government owes NSW a $105m in payments from returning Queenslanders who completed their two-week hotel quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bill was previously estimated at $40m, but the Treasurer said the figure had ballooned to $105m.
Mr Mookhey said conversations were ongoing with his Queensland counterpart, Cameron Dick.
“I don’t want to create unnecessary acrimony with the Queensland government, (but) I want them to pay their bills,” he told 2GB on Thursday.
“The money has not been paid.”
The fees were a result of NSW hosting the majority of returning passengers undertaking their mandatory two-week hotel quarantine, before they returned to their respective states.
While travellers were responsible for the fees from July 2020 onwards, prior to this, the states footed the bill, with an agreement the passenger’s destination state would ultimately pay.
However, with an outstanding $105m bill, Mr Mookhey said he would investigate settling the difference through a GST carve-up, or by deducting the moment from bills the state owed to the Queensland government.
“We are reserving the right to start deducting the money from bills we owe the Queensland government,” he said, adding the former government had “written the money off”.
While the Treasurer didn’t appear confident he could recoup the funds, he said he was “setting myself a challenge”.
“I’m not promising success but I am promising effort,” he said.
“From the indications that I’m getting from the Queensland government, I’m not optimistic but it’s clear we are right now having to make some tough decisions about NSW’s finances, (and) I’m not sneezing at $105m.”
In response, a spokesman for Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said NSW was “free to pursue additional funding through interstate GST arrangements”.
Anyone entering Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic was required to undertake a fortnight of hotel quarantine. Most people entered via NSW.
Hotel quarantine in NSW was free at the start of the pandemic and then the Berejiklian government introduced fees in July 2020.
A mandatory 14 days in hotel quarantine came with a $3000 cost for one adult. Additional adults were $1000 each and children under 18 years of age were $500 each. Children under three years of age were free.