CORONAVIRUS —
INTERSTATE BORDER RESTRICTIONS
141. Ms C.M. COLLINS to the Premier:
I refer to the growing COVID-19
outbreak in Victoria. Can the Premier please update the house on the state
government's response to the outbreak, including changes to our
controls with Victoria and what that will mean for Western Australians?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I thank the member for Hillarys for
the question, and congratulate her on her tremendous success in the electorate
of Hillarys at the state election.
The situation in Victoria
is very concerning. There have been 26 cases in total now, that we are aware
of, with 12 new cases reported
overnight. We understand the exposure sites in Victoria have now grown to 83
and the situation is obviously developing fast in Victoria. We have
offered the support of our contact tracers to the Victorian government, should
they need our support. However, we have had to put in place measures to address
the situation concerning Victoria.
Victoria is now designated a medium-risk
jurisdiction under our controlled border regime. That means we now have a hard
border in place with Victoria. Travel to WA for anyone who has been in Victoria
since 16 May will no longer be permitted unless they are an exempt traveller.
The exemption list includes those people who would be included for
compassionate reasons, which may be Western Australians who have travelled to
Victoria recently and need to return to Western Australia. It also includes a range
of occupations, particularly senior levels of the commonwealth government.
Anyone arriving in Western Australia from 10 o'clock this morning who
is exempted will be required to complete 14 days of self-quarantine at a suitable
premise and be tested for COVID-19 on arrival and on day 11. People who have
arrived in Western Australia and who had been in Victoria since 16 May, prior
to 6.00 pm on 25 May, must now also get tested within 48 hours and
self-quarantine until they return a negative result, which is the same
arrangement that has been in place for the last two days. In effect, we are
backcasting to 16 May for that arrangement. The Western Australia Police Force
will get in contact with these people through the G2G system.
This is the first time since the
Queensland outbreak in late March that a jurisdiction has been classified as
medium risk under our controlled border
regime, which is, in effect, the first time since late March we have put in
place a hard border for Western Australia.
It brings us no pleasure to do this to Victoria, and we understand it involves
significant disruption for people coming from Victoria. Obviously our
thoughts are with Victoria. They are going through another significant issue,
not of their making. A quarantine escape in Adelaide has caused this issue in
Melbourne, and more broadly in Victoria, but it shows that we have to be
careful. It also shows that we have to continue using the SafeWA app and, if
you are eligible to be vaccinated, you need to get vaccinated as soon as you
possibly can, because that is our way out of the pandemic.
We have a website, rollup.wa.gov.au,
to allow people over 50 to book in for their vaccine appointment. We look
forward to vaccinating people under the age of 50 as soon as we possibly can;
that is, as soon as we get the supplies from the commonwealth government.
This event shows that our G2G PASS,
our controlled border system, and the fact we verified at the High Court the
capacity of Western Australia to put in place borders are important measures to
protect the health and welfare of all Western Australians.