CORONAVIRUS — INTERSTATE BORDER
RESTRICTIONS
744. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. In the interests of
gold-standard transparency, will the Premier now table all the contemporary
changing health advice of Dr Robertson?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
I expect the government
will table further information in the upper house this afternoon. I just want
to be really clear with opposition members. They seem to always want to
criticise the arrangements we put in place. They seem to nitpick about it all
the time.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Members on my left!
Mr M. McGOWAN: Why is it that opposition members
constantly want us to change the position, which is apparently what they want?
Is that what they want?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Members on my left!
Mr M. McGOWAN: What is the opposition trying to
achieve? I just want to understand the opposition's strategy. What does
it want to achieve?
Mr D.C. Nalder interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for Bateman!
Mr M. McGOWAN: What it wants to do, which is all the
Liberal Party has wanted to do from the very beginning, is tear down the border. That is all it wanted to do—tear down
the border. It does not believe in states' rights anymore. It
certainly does not support the measures we put in place to keep people in this
state safe and secure. And it joins with Clive Palmer. What we need to
understand in Western Australia, and what I want every Western Australian to understand over the course of the next six
months, is that when they see an advertisement by Clive Palmer, that is
the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party and Clive Palmer are as one. Clive Palmer
is a life member of the Liberal–National Party.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Members!
Mr M. McGOWAN: Members opposite are shaking their
heads. If one is a life member of the Liberal–National Party, surely —
Several members interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN: I remember that in Queensland he was
made a life member of the Liberal–National Party.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Members, all I can hear is a dull roar.
Mr M. McGOWAN: Oh well.
Mrs L.M. Harvey interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN: I am not reading from it, but if the
Leader of the Opposition wants me to, I will.
Mrs L.M. Harvey interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN: Oh my goodness. I just told the member we were going
to table some more information in the
upper house today. I do have something here. This article quotes Justice
Rangiah, who examined all of the evidence —
The border restrictions have been
effective to a very substantial extent to reduce the probability of COVID-19
being imported into WA from interstate.
�
''If the border
restrictions were replaced by that suite of measures, plus a hotspot regime
involving either quarantining or banning persons from entering from designated
hotspots, that would be less effective than the broad measures in preventing
the importation of COVID-19 �
If the Liberal Party had
its way, COVID would have come back to Western Australia, people would have
died and we would have a less strong and robust economy. That is what
would have happened if the Liberal Party and Clive Palmer had their way.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Everyone finished? Members, please, I want
to hear the question and the answer in silence.