❓ A WA parliamentary question on notice regarding the recovery of hotel quarantine costs, including invoicing practices, debt collection, waivers, and extended stays. The response provides data on outstanding invoices, debt collection efforts, and reasons for extended quarantine periods.
AnsweredQoN 460Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to
Public Health Amendment (COVID-19 Response) Act 2020 regarding recovery of hotel quarantine costs, and I ask: (a) in response to question without notice 156, the Minister confirmed that
invoices are generally issued after 60 days whereas in response to question 10
of the WA Health Additional Questions asked of the Standing Committee on
Estimates and Financial Operations it was said that 'The Department is committed
to issuing invoices within 60 days of the passengers check-out date' and I ask, which
answer is correct; (b) as
of 30 April 2021 a total of 5,865 invoices valued at $19.5 million were
outstanding, yet at 31 October 2021 that figure increased to 11,892
invoices outstanding estimated at $28 million, what is the Government doing to
ensure these debts are collected: (i) how many of the outstanding invoices are within the following terms: (A) within
30 days; (B) between
31 and 60 days; (C) between 61 and 90 days; (D) between
91 and 120 days; (E) between
121 and 150 days; and (F) after
150 days or more; (c) has the Government commenced debt collection proceedings against anyone
for non-payment of hotel quarantine costs; (d) if yes to (c), what is the total number of invoices that this action has
been taken against and the total dollar value of those invoices; (e) if yes to (c), what has the cost been to date of fee recovery actions
taken by the State Government; (f) how many invoices remain outstanding and what is the total amount
outstanding as at today's date; (g) how many persons has the Chief Health Officer waived part or all of the
fee relating to hotel quarantine costs; and (h) how many persons have been required to remain in Hotel Quarantine past
14 days: (i) for each of these instances, please give the reason for their extended
stay?
Public Health Amendment (COVID-19 Response) Act 2020 regarding recovery of hotel quarantine costs, and I ask: (a) in response to question without notice 156, the Minister confirmed that
invoices are generally issued after 60 days whereas in response to question 10
of the WA Health Additional Questions asked of the Standing Committee on
Estimates and Financial Operations it was said that 'The Department is committed
to issuing invoices within 60 days of the passengers check-out date' and I ask, which
answer is correct; (b) as
of 30 April 2021 a total of 5,865 invoices valued at $19.5 million were
outstanding, yet at 31 October 2021 that figure increased to 11,892
invoices outstanding estimated at $28 million, what is the Government doing to
ensure these debts are collected: (i) how many of the outstanding invoices are within the following terms: (A) within
30 days; (B) between
31 and 60 days; (C) between 61 and 90 days; (D) between
91 and 120 days; (E) between
121 and 150 days; and (F) after
150 days or more; (c) has the Government commenced debt collection proceedings against anyone
for non-payment of hotel quarantine costs; (d) if yes to (c), what is the total number of invoices that this action has
been taken against and the total dollar value of those invoices; (e) if yes to (c), what has the cost been to date of fee recovery actions
taken by the State Government; (f) how many invoices remain outstanding and what is the total amount
outstanding as at today's date; (g) how many persons has the Chief Health Officer waived part or all of the
fee relating to hotel quarantine costs; and (h) how many persons have been required to remain in Hotel Quarantine past
14 days: (i) for each of these instances, please give the reason for their extended
stay?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
16 February 2022
Responded by
Minister representing the Minister for Health
Response time
3 days
(a) The Department of Health issues an invoice for a passenger’s hotel quarantine within 60 days of the passenger’s check out date.
(b) Where guests have either not paid an invoice or entered into a payment plan arrangement within 90 days of the invoice date, the Department of Health engages the services of an external debt collection company to recover the overdue fees.
(i) (A) – (E)
The table below details the outstanding hotel quarantine debt as at 31 December 2021, as extracted from the Department’s Financial Management System which sorts invoices into defined time periods.
Number of invoices
Within 30 days (Not Overdue)
660
1 – 30 days overdue
514
31 – 60 days overdue
440
61 – 90 days overdue
305
91 – 180 days overdue
3,511
181 – 360 days overdue
3,190
361+ days overdue
340
TOTAL
8,960
(c) Yes
(d) As at 31 December 2021, 5,720 invoices had been referred to an external debt collector with a value of $16,131,950.
(e) $868,181
(f) As at 31 December 2021, the Department of Health had reduced the number of outstanding invoices to 8,960 with a total outstanding value of $23,960,353.
(g) As at 19 January 2022, 6280 people had part or all of the fee relating to hotel quarantine costs waived.
(h) 1131 people.
(i) - 474 due to COVID related reasons (e.g. COVID case, close contact, failed exit health screen)
- 657 due to non-COVID related reasons (e.g. late end of quarantine time resulting in overnight stay, flight maintenance issues).
(b) Where guests have either not paid an invoice or entered into a payment plan arrangement within 90 days of the invoice date, the Department of Health engages the services of an external debt collection company to recover the overdue fees.
(i) (A) – (E)
The table below details the outstanding hotel quarantine debt as at 31 December 2021, as extracted from the Department’s Financial Management System which sorts invoices into defined time periods.
Number of invoices
Within 30 days (Not Overdue)
660
1 – 30 days overdue
514
31 – 60 days overdue
440
61 – 90 days overdue
305
91 – 180 days overdue
3,511
181 – 360 days overdue
3,190
361+ days overdue
340
TOTAL
8,960
(c) Yes
(d) As at 31 December 2021, 5,720 invoices had been referred to an external debt collector with a value of $16,131,950.
(e) $868,181
(f) As at 31 December 2021, the Department of Health had reduced the number of outstanding invoices to 8,960 with a total outstanding value of $23,960,353.
(g) As at 19 January 2022, 6280 people had part or all of the fee relating to hotel quarantine costs waived.
(h) 1131 people.
(i) - 474 due to COVID related reasons (e.g. COVID case, close contact, failed exit health screen)
- 657 due to non-COVID related reasons (e.g. late end of quarantine time resulting in overnight stay, flight maintenance issues).
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.