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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 28 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 16 February 2022 by Ms M.J. Davies

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — HEALTH MODELLING — OMICRON VARIANT

28. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:

I have a supplementary question. When will the Premier receive the Omicron modelling from the Chief Health Officer? Please advise the house of the date.

Mr M. McGOWAN replied:

Madam Speaker, we will get the advice when the Chief Health Officer provides it to us. There always seems to be this fixation on—I have been through this for the last two years—what date is this and what date is that? We do things as quickly, transparently and reasonably as we can, based upon the circumstances we face. By any objective measure, Western Australia has done well. We have actually done the best in the world. Western Australia has done the best in the world in both the management of the pandemic and economic outcomes. I cannot think of anywhere else in the world that has done as well as Western Australia, yet the opposition continues to criticise. As the Chief Health Officer and the other health officials undertake this work, obviously the government will release the modelling at some point in the future, and we will provide all the information. But when that happens, of course, then the opposition will go to something else—what is the date for this or that? I just make the point to members opposite again —

Ms M.J. Davies interjected.

Mr M. McGOWAN: I cannot understand what the Leader of the Opposition is saying. It is very muffled. I can just hear a noise. I am sorry; I cannot even respond.

All we will do is to continue to adopt a cautious and reasonable approach to a difficult and wicked problem. I understand that some people would like to have free travel between the states. For me, personally, going and seeing my mother and father, and my brother and sister-in-law and the like would be a nice thing to do. I look forward to doing that at some point later this year. In any event, in the meantime, whilst we get our vaccination rates up, we will be saving Western Australian lives. Our aim is to avoid some of the worst excesses that other states have experienced. I also remind members, because I think this has been forgotten in a lot of the commentary, that we have now had over 30 000 people come into Western Australia from the eastern states in the last 12 days. When people say there is a hard border, 30 000 people have come into Western Australia in the last 12 days, subject to quarantining and testing. Thirty thousand people is like the population of Kalgoorlie coming into Western Australia in the last 12 days, subject to quarantining and testing. The regime we have in place is fair, reasonable and compassionate, and it is protecting the state. Obviously, at some point it will change.