Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rebuffed calls for a federal quarantine program despite another breach sparking fears of a fresh coronavirus outbreak.
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Victoria has reinstated compulsory face masks and gathering limits after a worker from a hotel full of Australian Open players and staff tested positive.
Western Australia is four days into a five-day lockdown after a hotel security guard contracted the highly contagious UK strain of the virus from an infected guest.
But the latest infections haven't convinced the federal government to shift quarantine out of state-run hotels.
Mr Morrison said the current regime allowed for the appropriate scale of international arrivals.
"Hotel quarantine remains the most effective way to do that and that remains the advice I have from my experts," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
The prime minister said he could see no other alternatives.
"We could go and try and rebuild the Labor Party's immigration detention network that they put in place during the border protection crisis," he said.
"We all remember what a debacle that was and so if that's the option, then I don't find that as persuasive."
State premiers have proposed a number of alternatives to hotel quarantine including regional hubs to avoid capital city outbreaks.
WA Premier Mark McGowan has called for the Christmas Island detention centre to be used, as it was at the start of the pandemic, but the federal government twice rejected him.
Last month, Brisbane was plunged into a snap lockdown after a quarantine worker caught the coronavirus.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk proposed shifting quarantine from CBD hotels to accommodation near Gladstone in the central part of the state.
Mr Morrison said that plan lacked detail that balanced economic and health risks for the community but confirmed another location could be used.
"The Toowoomba option we're looking at, as a supplementary capacity, and writing back to the Queensland premier about that."
Labor argues quarantine is a federal responsibility under the constitution.
The federal government has spent more than $243 million on quarantine at the Howard Springs mining camp near Darwin.
That facility is now primarily used to house arrivals from special flights to return stranded Australians from overseas.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said hermetically sealing off Australia would be the only way to stop the virus from entering the country.
But he said the government wouldn't do that because it would prevent Australians from returning and stop critical medicines and foods being imported.
"Anybody who says there won't be cases in Australia isn't understanding the nature of the pandemic," Mr Hunt said.
"But we'll always work on continuous improvement."
Australian Associated Press
