CORONAVIRUS
— INTERSTATE TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS — EXEMPTIONS
852. Hon SIMON O'BRIEN to the minister representing
the Minister for Police:
I refer to the arrangements in place
for dealing with the many people applying to enter Western Australia during
this period of closed borders.
(1) How many
applications for travel exemption have been received and how many are being
received in a typical week?
(2) What are the criteria for
granting exemption to enter Western Australia?
(3) How many police
and other personnel are involved in processing applications, managing
quarantine hotels and other COVID-19-related duties?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank Hon Simon O'Brien for
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by
the Minister for Police.
The WA Police Force advises as
follows.
(1) As part of
its response to protecting the community from COVID-19, the WA Police Force
gave priority to developing processes that allowed the timely processing of
applications for entry. The first five months of managing entry to the state
have been based on ensuring the systems and processes are in place to assist
the Western Australian community. The G2G PASS has been critical to this
process and has placed Western Australia ahead of other states. The priority
was to keep the community safe and support the State Emergency Coordinator and
the police in management of the borders rather than collecting data. Now that
the state has systems, processes and procedures in place, the WA Police Force
is looking at data collection options that do not require daily manual
counting.
(2) Travellers seeking to enter Western Australia are
encouraged to use a G2G PASS or the Western Australian entry application
form. The criteria for granting exemption to enter Western Australia are
outlined in the publicly available document titled ''Quarantine (Closing
the Border) Directions''. Amendments are made to these directions as
circumstances change with the up-to-date criteria publicly available, including
on the Western Australian government website.
This is the first time I have seen
that. If the honourable member would like a copy of it, he should talk to me
behind the Chair. I can provide one to him at a later stage.
(3) As previously stated publicly, around 400 officers
are attached to Operation Tide. More specific information on numbers of
police officers deployed to operations is not publicly released as it is
considered sensitive information by police.