CORONAVIRUS —
TOURISM INDUSTRY
420. Mr W.R. MARMION to the Premier:
I
refer to today's The West Australian, specifically the article
referring to Simon, the owner of Inspiration Outdoors, who cannot
survive on just intrastate tourism.
(1) What does the
Premier say to Simon and all the other small business owners who have been
flattened by his interstate border closures?
(2) On what date will the border
restrictions be lifted so that Simon and others can plan for their future?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
(1)–(2) Obviously,
the government and I are very sympathetic to those people who are suffering
from all the measures that we put in place to combat the pandemic. We have an
enormous amount of sympathy and understanding towards those businesspeople. We
have done our best to get economic activity back in a COVID-safe way in Western
Australia. It has not been an easy period.
Obviously, we have an interstate
border in place to protect Western Australians. We have had border restrictions in place since late March. They were
put in place to ensure that COVID in the eastern states was not able to
spread into Western Australia. The measures that we have put in place over the
last three or four months have been successful. We have not had a case of
community infection in Western Australia since mid or early April this year.
That has allowed us to better open up our economy. I want to make sure that
people across Western Australia fully understand what the difference is here
for the hospitality industry in particular,
which employs tens of thousands of Western Australians, compared with the
eastern states. In Western Australia, people who own or run a venue can
have up to 300 patrons, with 100 people in a room, in their venue, subject to
the two-square-metre rule. That is the rule across Western Australia. In New South Wales, people can have up to 50
people in their venue subject to the four-square-metre rule—that is, one person per four square metres. In Western
Australia, venues can have one person per two square metres. In
Victoria, there can be up to 20 people in an enclosed space, subject to the
four-square-metre rule. A cafe or restaurant in Victoria can have 20 people at
the moment. A cafe or restaurant, pub or hotel in Western Australia can have up
to 300 people, subject to 100 people per room.
Ms L. Mettam interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Vasse.
Mr M. McGOWAN: That is subject to the two-square-metre
rule. In Queensland, restaurants, cafes, pubs and registered clubs can have up
to 20 patrons at a time. In Western Australia, it is 300 patrons. Tasmania is
allowing up to 80 people to gather indoors—one
person per four square metres. In South Australia, up to 80 diners are allowed
in restaurants, cafes, wineries, pubs, breweries and bars as long as 20 people
can be contained within a room, subject to one person per four square metres.
As members can see, the measures that we have put in place have been far more
progressive in allowing for economic activity within Western Australia by a huge
amount than any other state in Australia.
If the member wants to quote The
West Australian, today we saw the headline ''WA leads in spending'',
an article by Meilin Chew on page 23 of the
West Business section. This basically says that the measures that we have put
in place have allowed far more consumer spending in Western Australia
than any other state in Australia. Of course, consumer spending creates jobs.
Although I understand that the
border arrangements have been difficult for many businesses to deal with, in an
overall sense, what we have put in place has created more activity, more
vibrancy, more employment and more consumer spending than any other state by a very
big margin.