“WA Labor’s ad hoc approach to a vaccination passport, especially if it is to be a WA-specific vax passport, is a matter of serious concern” said WA Liberal Leader, Dr David Honey.
“Labor has no clarity about its plans for a WA-specific vax passport. There seems to be an ad hoc approach, such as the recent mandating of compulsory vaccination for our mining workers and for ‘Schoolies Week’.
“It is unreasonable for WA Labor to force significant restrictions on the everyday movement and employment of Western Australians in an ad hoc manner without consultation or warning.
“Government decisions that impact our longstanding individual freedoms and selfdetermined decision-making need to be made in a considered and consultative way.
“WA Labor needs to be honest with each Western Australian about what should be our State’s Covid Roadmap and compulsory vaccination, for example:
- What jobs will be impacted – teachers, office workers, hospitality workers,
childcarers, tradies? Will all state government employees have to be fully
vaccinated? - Are there going to be restrictions according to geographical area? Labor has justified
restrictions on mining workers because of the risk to vulnerable aboriginal
communities. So, does this mean all Western Australians will have to be fully
vaccinated that want to visit the Gascoyne, Goldfields, Pilbara, Kimberley and other
parts of our State where there are aboriginal communities with low vaccination
rates? - What are the exemptions to mandatory vaccinations? Do all mining operations,
even those that are nowhere near isolated aboriginal communities, still require
compulsory vaccination? - What is the timing for each group of Western Australians that must have mandatory
vaccination? - What assistance, if any, will be provided to small businesses to deal with the
additional burden of implementing or policing a WA vaccination passport? - How does the McGowan-Cook Labor government intend to secure additional skilled
workers to fill the gaps of workers who are not yet fully vaccinated?
“There is also the glaring issue as to why WA Labor and their Health Minister Roger Cook have not done more and moved more quickly to get regional aboriginal communities to the same level of vaccination as the wider community. Instead, they are ordering the entire mining sector and anyone visiting those areas to be fully vaccinated.
“It is extremely concerning that aboriginal communities and other vulnerable sectors of the community are being left behind in WA Labor’s slow and inadequately focussed vaccine rollout.
“Finally, the Premier needs to explain how his Labor government intends to rebuild our trust that the vaccine passport data (which includes the mobile phone number and email contact for each of us) will not be misused as was the case with the SafeWA app and the G2G passes.
“A genuine Roadmap for WA out of COVID requires a community conversation, not unilateral decisions forced on each of us by regulation and restriction from WA Labor.
“It is time for the Premier and his Health Minister Roger Cook to come clean on the Roadmap out, especially if it includes a WA-specific vaccination passport”.
