Another week, another interesting time in politics.

Last week, Opposition Leader Mia Davies and I announced our proposal for a new reopening date on or before March 5^th, calling on WA Labor to set a new date as a response to Omicron entering the WA community.

The Premier cannot “crush and kill” the virus any longer – that road is behind us.  Now we must live with COVID. The question is, while every Western Australian did everything right, followed every Government direction and rule, has WA Labor done their part to prepare? It’s rich to hear them call on Western Australians to fulfill their end of the reopening bargain, while they reneged on their promise due to their own lack of preparation.  It is Western Australians that have suffered. The premier couldn’t even open on the date he set, not a date imposed upon him. He said that unforeseen circumstances – namely Omicron – was the reason for the delay. We all know this is an poor excuse.  The Omicron variant entered Australia last November.  How can it be “unforeseen” when the Premier’s chosen border reopening date was set in December?

There is, in fact, an increased health risk caused by delaying the border reopening.  The majority of the most vulnerable people in our community have already had their third Covid booster shot.  The booster effectiveness reduces significantly in a few months. In addition to this, we are expected to have a record flu season this year with diminished natural immunity because flu was reduced last year due to lockdowns. Europe and the US have both seen a record flu season this winter.  Infections from the Omicron variant of the Covid virus spike in around 60 days after it starts spreading and then they reduce.  We must avoid having the Omicron spike coinciding with the flu season when booster effectiveness is reducing. Delaying the border opening will actually put more people at risk of serious illness and death, not protect them.  As I said above, Omicron is already here. We increasingly see the Premier continue to flounder on his reasoning, not releasing any modelling and quoting misleading statistics from the Eastern States.

On Saturday I attended a rally held by the “Parents are Immediate Family” group. These are West Australians who have family, particularly parents, living in other countries. Due to WA’s travel restrictions, many of these people haven’t been able to see their parents in over two years.  Some with young children who haven’t even met their grandparents. We met in my electorate with the media to ask the State Government to show more compassion for family reunions. Parents could only enter WA if they flew to one of the Eastern States, quarantined for two weeks, then flew into WA and quarantined for another two weeks. This was simply inhuman – the thousands of dollars spent just getting here and the mental health effects of a month-long quarantine.  The reduction in the required quarantine period to 7 days is an improvement.  However, the low cap on international visitors into WA effectively means that many family members simply cannot visit WA. The Premier needs to relax these rules for the sake of all Western Australians affected by family separation.

The previous weekend, we saw over 25,000 blackouts State-wide due to a combination of poor maintenance and poor weather conditions. This included both the metro and regional areas, with some places going without power for over 12 hours in 40-degree heat. Kalgoorlie alone had over 16,000 homes affected where temperatures were soaring and there were thousands more in Geraldton. This is the handiwork of Energy Minister Bill Johnston, or as I’ve aptly renamed him, “Blackout Bill”, the Blackout Minister. It simply isn’t acceptable that Western Australians are forced to suffer a neglected energy grid, while over $500 million dollars was syphoned from Western Power in fees and charges in the past two years.  The State-wide skills shortages caused by the border closure has exacerbated the challenges of repairing the broken system.

The McGowan Labor Government are the masters of spin.  However, all the spin in the world cannot hide their incompetence.  They are a one-trick pony – they may have been effective in shutting the borders, but they have failed to manage the rest of the State.

Dr David Honey MLA

WA Liberal Leader & Member for Cottesloe