CORONAVIRUS —
INTERSTATE BORDER RESTRICTIONS
406. Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP to the Premier:
Can
the Premier confirm that the government's official policy for the
management of COVID-19 is now eradication as opposed to suppression; or, if it is not, why is the reopening of the
interstate border contingent upon the eradication of community spread in
all jurisdictions for at least one month?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I have done a lot of travelling around
the state lately, and when I was in Dawesville, a lot of the people there, on a
number of occasions, endorsed what we have been doing—as they have been
in Darling Range, Geraldton and Vasse. I have been travelling around Western Australia
and visiting local communities. A couple of weeks ago when I was in Hillarys, a
lot of people indicated to me that they appreciated the fact that we have taken
difficult decisions and difficult steps in order to ensure that we keep Western
Australians safe—particularly older people across the state who, with
some justification, have felt very vulnerable over the last three months. They
understood that difficult decisions were made to keep people safe, while at the
same time in Western Australia we have been able to maximise economic activity—certainly
compared with any other state in Australia.
Obviously our strategy has been
suppression. The reason we can never guarantee eradication is that the virus
can come from somewhere else, so although we are confident that we have low
rates, if not zero community spread of the virus in Western Australia, we have
to keep our guard up and ensure that we minimise the prospect of the virus
coming from somewhere else. I think that is a very simple thing that most
people understand. Suppression within Western Australia will always be our
goal. Until we get a vaccine around the world, it will be very difficult to see
when international borders will be reopened in any significant way without very
severe measures around it; I cannot foresee that at this time. But we have our
interstate border in place because there has been community spread in the east.
In Victoria today and over the last few days in New South Wales and the like,
they have been closing down schools. We have not done that, because we have not
had any community spread of the virus.
I urge the state Liberal Party to
work with us on this. We will get to a point when we can announce an opening of
the state border, but that is not now.