But Queensland treasurer Cameron Dick has responded in kind with a response that basically comes down to: Do your best, but don’t forget the $40 million you owe us.

But really, it’s all a bit a theatre, an attempt by the relatively new NSW Labour Government to try to say they are different from their predecessors.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who is a friend Treasurer Dick, went on talkback radio primarily to talk about the NSW residents who owe the Government as much as $3000 each for their stay in quarantine hotels.

Queensland’s bill for the same hotels was initially about $40 million and Deputy Premier Steven Miles ripped that one up.

“Money has not been paid. It’s not $40 million that Queensland owes us, it’s $105 million,” Mookhey told 2GB.

The previous NSW Coalition Government had written that off.

“We are pursuing it through the GST carve up,” Mookhey said.

“We are reserving the right to deduct that from bills we owe the Queensland Government.”

One of those bills is about $40 million owed to Queensland that has been incurred when a NSW resident uses a Queensland hospital, which is a relatively common event on the Tweed-Gold Coast region.

But that would happen anyway. Because Queensland has been flooded with funds from coal royalties, the amount of funds it receives from the GST carve up would be reduced next year and dispersed among other states.

A spokesperson for the Treasurer Dick said NSW was free to pursue additional funding through the GST arrangements.

The money would cover the cost for NSW to build two new public high schools, amid a debt crisis placing pressure on the recently elected government.

The Treasurer’s spokesman said NSW was free to pursue additional funding through interstate GST arrangements.

In 2021, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles filmed himself ripping up a $30 million tax invoice sent by the NSW government. At the time, Mr Miles said the bill was “100 per cent a federal responsibility”.

“We’re not going to pay this bill, not while the Commonwealth refuses to endorse our plan for a national quarantine centre,” he said.

Since then, thousands more Queensland residents have quarantined in NSW up until the scheme ended in December, tipping the bill over $100 million.

Mookhey told 2GB on Thursday one option would be to start deducting the debt from bills NSW owes to Queensland.

“All states have payments between each other as we all provide services to each other’s citizens,” Mr Mookhey said.

“I don’t want to create unnecessary acrimony with the Queensland government. I want them to pay their bills.”