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.