Victorian Liberal Democrat Tim Quilty says the way the states dealt with COVID-19 outbreaks by closing borders disrupted the economies of regional areas.

“They way they locked the states down for a virus that was almost entirely in the cities, the way they closed the borders, northern Victoria – my electorate, runs along the Murray River and just by closing the border they completely disrupted our local economies,” he told Sky News host Chris Smith.

Mr Quilty said the solution was to create another state comprised of regional areas in New South Wales which would stretch as far up as Broken Hill and would not have any major cities in it.

“We did a report in the Victorian parliamentary budget office for large areas which involved Bendigo, Ballarat, Albury Wodonga, Shepperton, Mildura, Wagga, Griffith, Bathurst, but it could run as far as Broken Hill.”