The Opposition has welcomed the Premier finally coming clean by revealing the new reopening date of March 3, bringing relief and much-needed certainty for many West Australians.
Leader Mia Davies said the McGowan Government had heeded the calls of the Opposition to open on or before March 5, in line with the Chief Health Officer’s own advice.
“While for some this announcement has come too late, for many West Australians this is the certainty they had been waiting an entire month for,” Ms Davies said.
“Finally, families, businesses and industry can prepare for reunions, future bookings and an influx of much-needed workers, as WA reopens to the rest of Australia and the world.
“It is now incumbent on the Premier to stick to that date and not change his mind at the eleventh hour, like we saw last month.
“The Premier broke the trust of West Australians once before when he backed out of the February 5 date, he must not do it again.”
Ms Davies also said the last few months of chaotic COVID-19 management by the McGowan Government had not boded well for WA’s reputation as a place to live, work, and invest.
“The Premier and his Ministers will now have to work hard to rebuild WA’s status, which has been left sorely damaged after two years of telling people to stay away.
“Western Australia is an amazing place to live, work, and invest – it is up to the McGowan Government to up the anti in promoting that message.”
WA Liberal Leader Dr David Honey has called the Premier’s new border re-opening announcement long overdue but said the March 3 re-opening date, though not the original and much preferred Feb 5 date, is still a good time to re-open our State.
“The original February 5th date would have been better but, at least, the Premier finally understood that all the credible medical advice is that the border should be reopened as soon as possible and well before the winter flu season,” Dr Honey said.
Dr Honey said while talking about modelling and medical data, the Premier and his new Health Minister are still not prepared to trust West Australians with any modelling until next week.
“We cannot understand why there is so much secrecy surrounding this modelling, and it’s disappointing the Premier and his replacement Health Minister announced a slew of new restrictions without trusting West Australians with the health advice to justify them.
“I hope they actually stick to this new date and don’t repeat the Feb 5th backflip – the McGowan Government must now go further and assure West Australians it will not pull the rug out from under them yet again.
“If people travel to other States or nations, they must have absolute certainty that the WA Labor Government will not lock them out again – the cruel regime of family separation must end on March 3.”
