The NSW premier has defended a move to collect unpaid covid hotel quarantine fees directly from people's bank accounts. Revenue NSW is still chasing more than 17,000 people who haven't paid-up after more than two years.
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00:00 At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was what Australians abroad arrived home to.
00:08 A two-week stay in hotel quarantine in strict isolation for a cost of $3,000.
00:15 The food wasn't even hotel food. It was actually inedible. I was a vegetarian. I quit being
00:20 vegetarian to be able to eat.
00:22 Revenue New South Wales says 17,000 people still haven't paid their bill. It started
00:28 to take the money from personal bank accounts to collect the almost $40 million it's owed.
00:35 I saw several thousand dollars out of my bank account. Perhaps I missed Nemo. I don't believe
00:41 I've been contacted. I don't remember. There was no phone call.
00:44 They had been warned quite a few times, in fact numerous times.
00:47 More than 5,000 people have had the overdue money taken from their bank accounts.
00:52 Unfortunately the government needs that money to run essential services in the state.
00:56 Revenue New South Wales says it has the power to issue garnishee orders to banks and employers
01:02 if a fee isn't paid. And it says in this case it waited more than two years before
01:08 withdrawing what's owed.
01:10 The Premier's also chasing Queensland for more than $100 million in hotel quarantine
01:16 bills. Theirs is not a bank account he can take from.
01:20 If we had them, maybe we'd consider it.
01:23 Those suffering financial hardship can apply to pay in instalments.
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