Coronavirus crisis: Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall calls for ‘staggered’ reopening of Western Australian borders

WA’s peak tourism body says the State Government cannot take an “all or nothing approach” to the interstate border as it called for a “staggered” reopening of travel to the east. The Tourism Council WA also wants “clarity” on the health advice underpinning the decision to ban travel to and from other States and Territories after Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly revealed he did not believe border shutdowns were necessary. Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has also urged States such as WA, Queensland and SA to relax their border controls and WA Opposition Leader Liza Harvey said yesterday she supported immediately reversing the measure to throw a lifeline to tourism and hospitality operators. But a defiant Mark McGowan has refused to name a target date for the reopening of travel with the east, indicating it would rely on all States getting new case numbers down to WA’s near zero levels. Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall said he had told the McGowan Government he supported a “staggered approach to the borders”, which could potentially mean resuming travel to jurisdictions with low case numbers — such as South Australia and the Northern Territory — ahead of others. “We don’t want to wait until it is OK for everyone to travel,” Mr Hall said, highlighting that interstate travel was responsible for nearly 20 per cent of WA’s 108,000 tourism jobs. “We don’t want an all or nothing approach. If the health advice allows some travel, we should get on with that as soon as possible.” “At a Federal level and between states we are clearly seeing different health advice and we would like some clarity really about what is the guide, when is it safe to open up.” Mr Hall said his immediate priority was lifting all of the regional border restrictions ahead of the winter school holidays to allow West Australians to travel to the north of the state. Mrs Harvey said the travel restrictions were at odds with Commonwealth health advice and were “killing businesses in regional WA”. “There’s no community spread of COVID-19 in SA, Queensland or the NT, so why can we not allow some travel between those States?” she said. “The Premier needs to explain what this health advice is that says when there's no evidence of community spread of COVID-19 we have to restrict our citizens and shut down our state.” Mr McGowan said it was “grossly irresponsible” for Mrs Harvey to call for the borders to open and he expected the restriction would “stay for months to come” “We’ve had only one new case in WA over the course of the last week,” he said. “By contrast Victoria has had 59 new cases that they know about, NSW 15 cases they know about, Queensland 10 new cases they know about. “I found it grossly irresponsible the leader of the Liberal Party would call for the border with the east to be brought down at this point in time. It is not the safe or right thing to do.” The Premier confirmed the trigger for allowing interstate travel to resume was the eastern states bringing their case numbers under control. “If we have very low or zero infection across Australia, well then it makes it far easier to bring the borders down,” Mr McGowan said. Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has advised the Palaszczuk Government to remain cut off from NSW and Victoria until those states at recorded two incubation periods — or up to four weeks — of zero case. The McGowan Government would not yesterday confirm whether it was waiting for a similar period of zero new cases before re-opening interstate borders.

Coronavirus crisis: Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall calls for ‘staggered’ reopening of Western Australian borders

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