CORONAVIRUS — INTERNATIONAL TRAVELLERS
84. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
Given that under the Premier's
newly announced WA safe transition plan an unvaccinated Western Australian can
return to Western Australia from overseas as long as they complete hotel
quarantine and have commonwealth approval and a registered G2G PASS, can the
Premier explain why, if the same unvaccinated Western Australian returned from
interstate, they could not enter our state without a vaccination exemption?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I
will explain something to the Leader of the Liberal Party that he may not be
aware of; that is, the state does not control our international borders. That
might be a revelation to the Leader of the Liberal Party, but they are under
the control of the commonwealth government, and the commonwealth government has
a policy of allowing unvaccinated people to come home from overseas, subject to
quarantine. That is a matter that the commonwealth controls. We have a very
strong policy about people getting vaccinated, including some mandates in
certain parts of the workforce and also
some proof of vaccination requirements for people to do certain things,
including to travel into the state from other states. As we know, we do have control over that because the High Court
ruled that the state can control that. That is the difference, Leader of the
Liberal Party. I despair for the Liberal Party, because he does not understand
that.