Australians in Indonesia or Bali have been told to come home. Credit:SmartTraveller

The West Australian government is investigating whether it is possible to charge people who made “grossly irresponsible” decisions to travel overseas when the COVID-19 crisis was already evident, to recoup the cost of their quarantine.

People returning from overseas are being put up in Perth hotels including the Duxton and Pan Pacific for 14 days in quarantine, all at taxpayers' expense.

Premier Mark McGowan said he would “love to be able to charge” people who chose to travel overseas in the past two weeks.

“It was grossly irresponsible of people to go to Bali or Thailand or Britain or wherever it was,” Mr McGowan said.