CORONAVIRUS —
QUARANTINE ARRANGEMENTS
526. Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
Yesterday, the Premier said that there had been no offer by the Prime Minister
of ADF personnel. We found out from The Australian today that that exact
offer was made on 27 March. What is the situation? Has there been an offer that
the government has not taken up, or has the Premier failed to call the Prime
Minister and ask for ADF personnel being more involved in our hotel quarantine
practices to protect Western Australians from COVID-19?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I just explained what happened. I know
nothing about any 27 March offer. I will have that looked at. We sought ADF assistance
in relation to cruise ships and we did not get it.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Members! Your
leader is on his feet!
Mr M. McGOWAN: We sought ADF
assistance on a number of occasions and we did not get it. The cruise ships
were very difficult to manage. They caused me and the Minister for Health
multiple sleepless nights worrying about that. We sought assistance; we sought
help. We sought locations in which to put the passengers at defence bases and
we were rejected. We sought assistance from the ADF about where to put the
ships and we were rejected. We sought ADF help and it was not forthcoming. That
caused me a lot of grief. We had to, obviously, manage a very difficult
situation with the Artania in particular. Fortunately, it transpired
that we eventually got assistance with getting an aircraft out here. As I recall,
Senator Mathias Cormann was very helpful. A German aircraft came out and we
were able to fly most of the passengers back to Germany. At various crucial
points with those cruise ships, it was very, very tough and we were not given
the assistance that we were asking for.