The continued closure of Tasmania's borders is expected to cost the state about $170 million a month in lost tourism revenue, figures from a leading federal government body indicate.
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Tourists from the mainland spent $2.04 billion in Tasmania 2019, according to Tourism Research Australia. In the same period, Tasmanians spent about $776 million travelling in their state.
Interstate travellers from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland make up the bulk (about 72 per cent) of Tasmania's domestic tourism market.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, state governments in Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland introduced harsh mandatory quarantine rules which effectively closed their state borders, despite no expert national medical advice recommending closures.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison believes the border closures are "not good for the economy, particularly as we go into this next school holiday season".
"Those tourism businesses need that support...so those individual states, they'll have to justify those decisions themselves, because it wasn't something that came out of National Cabinet," Mr Morrison said.
On Thursday Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein hit back and declined to say when borders would reopen.
"The last time I looked, the Prime Minister wasn't the Director of Public Health in Tasmania, nor was he the Premier of Tasmania," Mr Gutwein said.
"At the end of the day we will make decisions that are in the best interests of Tasmania."
Public Health Director Mark Veitch said he helped develop national advice about border policies, but he said states should make final decisions.
"They [states] have to consider the particular circumstances of the state, the amount of disease that's in that state, the amount of disease that's in other states and the measures that are available to control cases of infection should they occur in our state," Dr Veitch said.
"The advice that I would provide to the Tasmanian government would take all of those factors into account and it will almost always be a decision that's made with some mutual considerations by all the states of Australia. It's a decision that'll be taken at a level above my pay scale."