CORONAVIRUS —
TOURISM — INTERSTATE TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
440. Mrs
L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I refer to the very troubling story
of Wendy from Geraldton Air Charter, who was interviewed on Ollie Peterson's
show yesterday. What does the Premier say to
Wendy, one of the many faces of Western Australian small businesses, who
has been absolutely decimated by his economic mismanagement and his uncertainty
over when border restrictions will be lifted?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I was in Geraldton maybe 10 days or
so ago and I am pretty sure that I met Wendy, who runs a charter service out to the Abrolhos Islands. I sat down and had a long
talk to her at a function that I held for local businesses in Geraldton.
I explained that what we have had to do to protect the health and economy of Western
Australia has been difficult. The overwhelming reception of the businesses at
that function, including, I think, Wendy, was that they were very understanding
of what has occurred.
The main loss of tourists for those
sorts of businesses are Chinese tourists, and that is what she said to me.
Chinese tourists like to come here and experience Geraldton and, for instance,
enjoy some seafood or catch a crayfish. Many like to go to the Abrolhos
Islands. The Chinese market has been a huge loss to the business. I do not have
any line of sight on when our international borders are going to open, but I think
it will be some time. I expressed my deepest regret and sympathy to those
businesses for what has had to occur to protect the health and wellbeing of Western
Australians, but they were very understanding of what has gone on.
Obviously, the overwhelming
customer base of many of those businesses, particularly charter operators and
the like that do flyovers of Pink Lake near
Kalbarri or of the Abrolhos, is international, and that is not something that I
can fix. If the Leader of the Opposition is suggesting that I can fix that, I can
tell her that that is a matter for the commonwealth government. I counsel
against bringing down the international border too soon, because if we
reintroduce COVID back into Western Australia and we have to shut down the
entire economy, that will be devastating for the people of our state.