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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 888 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 11 November 2020 by Mr Z.R.F. Kirkup

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — TESTING — WASTEWATER

888. Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP to the Minister for Health:

I refer to the opposition's calls in May for COVID-19 sewage testing and note that there has still been no active testing of the state sewerage system since that time. When will the Minister for Health provide an update to the house on what date sewage testing will commence in Western Australia? I am referring to not only hotel testing, but also community testing, as we asked for back in May.

Mr R.H. COOK replied:

I thank the member for the question. We come across many people who have opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic, but none of them necessarily like to politicise it in the way that the member for Dawesville does. It is incredible. We have had so much success around the COVID-19 pandemic. The Western Australian public has been incredible in the way that it has got behind all the measures that we have needed to take to make sure that we get on top of this disease. The only people in the state who have not got behind it are our friends opposite. They continue to politicise. They continue to snipe and be negative.

The work that the government has done around COVID-19 is a cause for celebration by the WA community. The wastewater testing, which we have commenced, is a way of continuing to add to our armoury of defences against this disease, whether it is testing, contact tracing, isolating people in hotels and making sure that people in the community do all the things we know are necessary, such as physical distancing, personal hygiene and making sure that if we are sick, we get ourselves tested and stay away from school or work. We know that all those things have been a great part of our success. But we also want to make sure that we do other things and inform ourselves on all the measures that we have available to us. Wastewater testing is another way that we can step forward.

A hallmark of the government's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic has been to back the science, to back the evidence that builds that science and to make sure that we take careful, cautious steps in protecting the people of Western Australia. A partnership between the Department of Health, PathWest and the Water Corporation has been carefully examining historical samples of wastewater to make sure that we understand what a presence of the disease in those tests means. If we have a positive test, for instance in Albany, what does that mean? Does it mean that there is an outbreak in that community or that someone is continuing to shed the disease, is no longer infectious and may already have completed their journey with the disease? We need to understand the science that backs up wastewater testing, which is the difference between what we have done and what perhaps has been done in other jurisdictions.

I am very pleased to report to the house that that testing and scientific work has been done and we are now undertaking live testing at hotel precincts and across five metropolitan wastewater treatment plants as part of our live program of continuing to test wastewater. It will be really important work, but it is not the only work. Other measures that we have put in place are obviously important in making sure that we continue to stay on top of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue do so, because we are following the science and the medical advice, and we are taking a cautious approach to COVID-19. That has been the hallmark of the Premier's leadership, which has helped to ensure that people get their jobs back, businesses are up and running again, and communities are brought back together. It has been very successful.