CORONAVIRUS —
INTERSTATE AND INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS — EXEMPTIONS
737. Hon PETER COLLIER to the minister representing the
Minister for Police:
I
have my two questions plus another three today. Once again, I apologise—my
computer has been fixed. I like my meticulous standards and have not
been able to adhere to them over the last two days.
I
refer to the minister's response to question without notice 716 asked
on 11 August. Of the 6 661 people who were exempt from quarantine between 5 April 2020 and 10 August 2020, how many
were exempted for business reasons?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable Leader of
the Opposition for some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided
to me by the Minister for Police.
The Western Australia Police Force
advises that quarantine statistics are not recorded for categories such as
business reasons, and the recording system has not been established to capture
this level of detail. The exemptions have been managed to ensure the safety of Western
Australians whilst at the same time protecting our economy, industry and
businesses. The majority of exemptions related to WA resident domestic flight
crew who were previously exempt from quarantine requirements. Specific
quarantine requirements for domestic flight crew, including WA resident flight crew who have been in New South Wales or
Victoria in the last 14 days, were introduced in July. A number of those exempt from quarantine were essential
specialist workers required for critical infrastructure and time
critical maintenance in support of the state. Changes to directions in July now
require those specialists to be required to quarantine and further restrict
anyone who has been in New South Wales or Victoria in the last 14 days from
entering the state. A smaller number of those exempt fell into the categories
of commonwealth officials or those performing a function of commonwealth law as
well as active military or health personnel. Individual numbers for each
exemption category are not particularised in the recording system. As the
honourable member is aware, we are currently living in the most unique state of
emergency and our police officers are rightly focused on responding to COVID-19
and keeping our community safe in these unprecedented circumstances.