NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has slammed the Queensland Government for not paying $30 million quarantine bill

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has slammed the Queensland government’s treatment of his state’s taxpayers as “rotten” in an increasingly bitter quarantine fight.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles filmed himself in February ripping up a tax invoice from the NSW Government for the hotel quarantine bill.

The $30 million invoice detailed costs of 7112 travellers between March 29 and September 30 who live in Queensland but had to undergo hotel quarantine in NSW.

With the sunshine state’s borders finally coming down after four months, Mr Kean said the Queensland government has “conveniently forgotten the debt they owe NSW”.

“It’s an absolute disgrace,” he told 2GB’s Drive program.

“We’ve sent the debt collectors up to Queensland but they’ve come up with nothing.

“So again, Queensland has let NSW do the heavy lifting through the pandemic and they’ve left us with the bill.”

Mr Kean said the NSW Government has not heard from their Queensland counterpart on the issue since the video in February.

“We only heard from them through the media,” Mr Kean said.

“We took the risks and did what was necessary to bring Australians home on behalf of the rest of the country.”

“And now the other states and territories are leaving us with the bill. I think it’s rotten.”

Mr Kean said NSW is going to continue to fight for the money to be paid back but at the moment the priority is bouncing back from the pandemic and keeping the community safe.

The comments come as Queensland has officially announced the borders will open to every state and territory on December 13.

Queensland, which has kept Covid numbers low via its hard line border stance, had provisionally flagged December 10 as the date it would pass the 80 per cent target and allow people from interstate hot spots to cross over.

That target is now set to be reached early, with Ms Palaszczuk on Monday afternoon announcing the borders would drop for fully vaccinated arrivals in a week, but international travellers must return a negative test within 72 hours of departure.

Barring an unpredictable “border bubble” arrangement with neighbouring NSW regions, arrivals to Queensland have for months been required to obtain a border pass and quarantine in hotels at their own expense.

From December 13, fully vaccinated border-zone residents who hold a border pass will be able to move freely with no tests.

Border zone residents who are not fully vaccinated will only be able to cross the border for limited reasons, as is the case now.

People arriving from hot spots who are not fully vaccinated must arrive by air and hotel quarantine for 14 days.