CORONAVIRUS — HEALTH MODELLING
630. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
In the absence of a road map for
safely reopening our state, will the Premier release the health modelling that
has been provided showing the impacts on our hospital system, any legal advice
and any other metrics that he is using to make decisions to mandate
vaccinations and for future plans to reopen our borders safely?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
The
advice provided by the Chief Health Officer has already been published, or will
be published later on today, so that is a standard occurrence. I remember all
of last year Liza Harvey asking me where the advice was and I would show her it
was on the website and then she would say, ''Where's the advice?''
It was a common thing. It did not matter how many times I said, ''Here's
the advice'' and I gave it to her; she said, ''Where's
the advice?'' People will remember
that. I do not know why, when I gave her the advice, she did not realise I was
giving her the advice. But I gave her
the advice all the time and I advised her it was the advice, but she did not seem
to understand it was the advice.
First of all, we have tabled that.
Secondly, I have advised the member that our expectation is that the border
arrangements in relation to New South Wales and Victoria will not come down
until next year. I have advised her of that repeatedly. That is the plan. I know
some people are saying that we should open for Christmas. I saw the Prime Minister
say that a month or so ago. It is an artificial deadline. Christmas is lovely,
and I would personally love to go with my
family and spend Christmas with my mother and father and my brother and his
wife and children in New South Wales. I would love that; that would be
great, but I cannot, because if we were to do that, we would run the risk of
importing the virus into Western Australia before we get to that extremely high
level of vaccination that we want to have. We would then have to put in place
public health safety measures, which would cost a lot of people a lot of
enjoyment over the Christmas period here in WA and also potentially cost
businesses a huge amount of income at their highest earning period in the year.
As I said yesterday, Queensland is different. It relies
heavily on the southern states' tourism market, whereas that is not the
case here. What would dramatically impact businesses here is if we had
importation of the virus prior to Christmas and then had to put in place public
health safety measures. Each state is different. That is probably why we are a Federation—each
state is different. The longer members go in this political life, the more they
realise that states are different. Each state has different nuances and perhaps
ours are greater than those of any other state in Australia. Perhaps we are the
most different of all the states.
It will be next year. In terms of
legal advice, no government has ever tabled the legal advice on these things.
Just so the member understands, that is the past practice of all governments.
In terms of modelling and those sorts of things, when we are able to provide a further
defined date for New South Wales and Victoria, obviously we will provide
further advice in relation to that.