'We should bill for the Ruby Princess': Astonishing war of words erupts between premiers Gladys Berejiklian and Mark McGowan as she demands Western Australia cough up $8million for coronavirus quarantine
Mark McGowan has fired back at Gladys Berejiklian after she claimed his state owed New South Wales $8million for quarantining WA residents.
The WA premier accused Ms Berejiklian of making the demand to distract from the 'serious corruption' scandal which came out at last week's Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation.
He said the move by the NSW government would be 'outside the national agreement that was reached at national cabinet'.
'If I was unkind, I would say maybe we should send a bill to the NSW government for the Ruby Princess and all the trauma that caused other states,' Mr McGowan said.
Gladys Berejiklian (pictured in parliament on Tuesday) demanded Queensland and WA should cough up money for coronavirus quarantine
Mark McGowan fired back, accusing Ms Berejiklian of making the demand to distract from the 'serious corruption' scandal which came out at last week's ICAC hearings
'Or maybe we should send a bill to the NSW government for the billions upon billions of dollars we gave them in GST over the course of the last decade.
'Or maybe this is just a diversion by the NSW government from the serious corruption that's been exposed at senior levels there.'
The corruption inquiry revealed that Ms Berejiklian had previously been in a relationship with disgraced MP Daryl Maguire, raising questions about how much she knew about his business dealings.
The NSW Liberal premier sparked the fresh row on Thursday by taking aim at the states with hard border closures, targeting Queensland before dragging WA into the mix.
She said Queensland owes NSW more than $35million for 'welcoming back their citizens' and she wants them to pay up.
NSW has been accommodating up to 2,500 international travellers every week in Sydney quarantine hotels - many of them from other states.
Crew of the beleaguered Ruby Princess Cruise Ship depart a charter bus at Sydney Airport on April 23
'It's about time Queensland in particular coughed up - they've closed their border to us without reason,' Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
She then claimed WA owed NSW 'around $7 or $8million' for quarantining WA residents returning from overseas.
Mr McGowan said his state was currently taking the most returned overseas travellers per capita.
Ms Palaszczuk said she was 'not going to be lectured by the premier of NSW'.
'I don't think Gladys Berejikilian should be criticising anyone. Quite frankly she's got enough of her own internal problems,' she said.
The Ruby Princess was allowed to dock without health checks for crew or passengers, which added to the spread of the coronavirus in Australia
What are the border restrictions?
New South Wales: Exemption required if coming from VIC
Victoria: No restrictions
Queensland: Exemption required if coming from NSW and VIC. Due to open to NSW on 1 November
South Australia: Exemption required if coming from VIC
Tasmania: Will open to SA, WA, QLD, the NT and the ACT on 26 October and to NSW on 2 November. Exemption required if coming from VIC
Western Australia: Exemption required from anywhere
ACT: Exemption required if coming from VIC
Northern Territory: Victorians must quarantine at their own expense
Australia: Only people who have been in New Zealand for 14 days can enter without hotel quarantine
'What happened to all working together? I mean that's what we do, we go into that national cabinet and we want to work together.'
Thousands of Australians could be re-united for Christmas as Scott Morrison prepares to meet state and territory leaders on Friday to discuss removing the country's internal borders.
State and territory border restrictions have been in place since April, keeping thousands of Aussies separated from their friends and family in other parts of the country.
Last month the prime minister announced he would work with every state except Western Australia to remove internal borders by December.
Mr McGowan, who faces an election in March and has gained popularity with his hard border closure, refused to take part in the plan.
On Thursday an EY study commissioned by the Business Council of Australia found the nation lost $78 billion from air travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The domestic aviation shutdown over the past seven months had cost $17billion, while the figure for international flights was $61billion.
'State border closures have seen passenger numbers on Australia's busiest air routes plummet 91 per cent since March, crippling the aviation sector and causing harmful knock-on effects in tourism and hospitality,' Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.
'Every day flights remain grounded costs Australia $69million or $2.1billion a month.
'When you add in international aviation losses at $250million a day or $7.6billion per month we are talking about an enormous hit to our economy.'