CORONAVIRUS —
AGRICULTURE WORKERS
664. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I refer to Craig and Michelle, a couple
currently living in their motorhome in South Australia who have secured work
on-farm in Merredin for the upcoming harvest but who have had their G2G PASS
application to enter Western Australia rejected five times since 7 August 2020.
(1) Does the Premier
think it is appropriate that farm businesses and people like Craig and Michelle
are experiencing weeks of delays to secure essential work in the agricultural
sector?
(2) What
additional information does he think is required to gain approval, given that
Craig and Michelle have provided a letter of
confirmation of employment from their future employers; copies of their
contract; copies of their passports,
licences and Medicare cards; confirmation that they have resided in South
Australia for six months; and evidence of their ability to quarantine
safely in isolation upon their arrival?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
(1)–(2) I
do not know who Craig and Michelle are and I do not know anything about their
circumstances. If the member wants to give me the details, I will pass their
details to the WA Police Force, which manages these things in accordance with
the law, and let it manage this particular case. I get a great many cases
brought to my attention through my office —
Ms M.J. Davies: They're
not the only ones, Premier. There are more involved.
Mr M. McGOWAN: Yes, that is
right. We have a hard border.
Ms M.J. Davies: So you think
it's acceptable for them to take five weeks —
Mr M. McGOWAN: We have a state
without COVID. Everything is a balance, and there are trade-offs.
The SPEAKER: Leader of the
National Party!
Mr M. McGOWAN: I said
earlier in question time, and I will repeat it: we are a major state of
Australia, we have the strongest economy in
Australia and we are the strongest growing state. We have a fly in, fly out
workforce coming from the east to live here. Today I noted that Woodside
announced it is doing the same as BHP and Rio Tinto, and I congratulate Woodside for that. This is
significantly strengthening the Western Australian economy through doing
this, but there are trade-offs involved. One of the trade-offs is that we have
a hard border with the east to keep COVID out. It has had some complainants. I was
talking about the commentators over east who are complaining about the
arrangement in Western Australia. They seem to want the virus to come in here
and then as the alternative we would have to adopt the New South Wales'
model of tracing and clamping down, closing businesses, having restrictions on
dancing, drinking, parties, weddings and funerals and all those sorts of
things. I disagree with that. I think having a hard border and having a far
more open economy, a far stronger economy and far more life and vitality in our
state is a better model. I do not get how they cannot understand this.
The Tasmanian Premier agrees with
me, but I note that there is never any complaint about him. I wonder why that
is? What could it be that is different? What could it be? Let us think about
that. It is certainly not that Tasmania has a more robust economy than ours.
Surely, if members are concerned about the strength of an economy, they would
be more worried about the Tasmanian example than the Western Australian
example.
In any event, I digress. If the
member wants to bring that case to my attention, I will pass it to the police.
I do not know the truth or otherwise of
everything that the member has just alleged. I will pass it to the police for
it to deal with.