CORONAVIRUS —
QUARANTINE BREACHES
549. Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP to the Minister for Health:
I have a supplementary question.
Would it not be prudent to undertake an independent COVID preparedness review
now, before there is any outbreak and while we have the capacity?
Mr R.S. Love: They're
not social distancing!
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Members! Those
two members there will separate. It is so easy just to do it. Is there another
one? Do you want me to separate from the chair, do you? We used to call them
dobbers in primary school.
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
Western Australia is in the fight
of its life. Let us compare this with another situation in which we would be
operating under the Emergency Management Act. Let us say we are in a bushfire
situation and this is day 5 of the bushfire, which continues to rage and engage
all our emergency services personnel. It continues to be a threat to the community
in much the same way as COVID-19 is.
Mr Z.R.F. Kirkup
interjected.
Mr R.H. COOK: If the member
for Dawesville had his way, we would pull the firefighters off the front line!
Mr Z.R.F. Kirkup
interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Dawesville, I call you to order for the second time.
Mr R.H. COOK: He would say, ''Everyone
come back and let's have a bit of a chat. Let's sit down and
have a bit of a talk.''
Mr A. Krsticevic
interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Carine, I call you to order for the second time.
Mr D.T. Redman interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for North West Central! Sorry,
member for Warren–Blackwood—I am so used to calling the member
for North West Central—I call you to order for the first time.
Mr R.H. COOK: If the member
for Dawesville had his way, he would have all the firefighters off the front
line, sitting in the crib tent —
Mr A. Krsticevic
interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Carine, I call you to order for the third time. Get ready to pack your bags.
Mr R.H. COOK: They would
be sitting in the crib tent and having a jolly good chinwag about how the fire
was going.
Member for Dawesville, we have
people on the front line protecting Western Australians today. There will come
a time when we have to look back and see what the learnings are from this. We
continue to refine our processes as we experience more and learn more about
COVID-19. But now is not the time to pull people off the front line. Now is the
time to make sure that we keep all our guns blazing on this disease. Now is the
time to continue to protect Western Australians and, in doing so, help Western Australians
get back to work.