Commonwealth-state tensions over quarantine arrangements and responsibilities are boiling over with Defence Minister Peter Dutton lashing WA Premier Mark McGowan's "mistake" in the latest case of COVID-19 spreading from hotel quarantine into the community.
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A three-day lockdown in the middle of the Anzac Day long weekend was imposed for the Perth and Peel regions of Western Australia after a man, who then travelled to Melbourne, tested positive to coronavirus after completing 14 days of quarantine at Perth's Mercure hotel. A woman he stayed with after leaving the hotel has also tested positive.
The WA Premier has described being at the "end of his tether" with the Commonwealth over hotel quarantine for returning Australians. He wants the federal government to help establish alternative quarantine sites to city hotels, saying CBD hotels are "not fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities".
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Last week, the ACT government announced it would not take any more repatriation flights because the territory lacked the infrastructure to make the program of flights and mandatory hotel quarantine cost effective.
Mr Dutton said the states needed to learn the lessons of handling the virus and accept responsibility.
"Mark McGowan has made a mistake with the Mercure Hotel," he's told the ABC's Insiders program.
"Nobody is being critical of him for that. He doesn't need to be defensive. He doesn't want to be the next (Victorian Premier) Dan Andrews where they had significant problems."
"They have got other hotels that have been perfectly fit-for-purpose."
Quarantine is a federal responsibility under the constitution, but in dealing with this COVID-19 pandemic, the states and territories agreed to they would manage hotel quarantine "given their primary responsibility in delivering health care".
Mr Dutton reminded states that the "Commonwealth doesn't have the tens of thousands of police officers, for example, or indeed the health systems, the states run public hospital systems and that's their responsibility".
The Mercure Hotel in Perth, where the latest case emerged, is already being stopped as a quarantine facility, but Mr McGowan wants the federal government to establish Commonwealth quarantine facilities, say they have a "range of facilities available".
The Commonwealth has already ruled out some facilities that have been used for long-term immigration detention and others, including Christmas Island, Yongah Hill, Garden Island and the Curtin detention centre.
Mr Dutton is not budging. He says immigration detention centres and air bases are not a quarantine alternative with thousands of people would need to be accommodated in tented facilities.
"I'd love to tell you that air bases or Christmas Island facility is fit-for-purpose, but it's not," he told Insiders.
"The accommodation is quite austere at air bases. There's not the segregation of facilities such as the mess and where people need to come together in blocks for, you know, showers or toilets or whatever it might be. It just is not fit for purpose."
Disagreements over quarantine responsibility are expected to be raised at this week's national cabinet, along with renewed efforts to reset Australia's sluggish COVID-19 vaccination rollout program.
To date, about 1.93 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia.
Supply shortages and delivery problems have been blamed for the delays, but last week federal, state and territory leaders agreed to fast-track the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 50 from next month.
Mass vaccination hubs are being set up, but a small number of adverse blood clotting reactions to the AstraZeneca vaccine are spooking Australians, and many people in high-risk groups in the aged care and disability sector are complaining they haven't received doses.
During the Perth and Peel three-day lockdown, Anzac Day events have been cancelled and the local hospitality industry is expecting million of dollars in lost revenue and spoiled food.
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