Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan says he State’s borders will remain partially closed, possibly until early February when the State should reach 90 per cent of its population double vaccinated against COVID-19.
McGowan says a full interstate and international opening before that could cost up to 200 lives.
In Tasmania, Peter Gutwein has set a December 15 date for reopening to the rest of Australia when he also expects to have reached a 90 per cent vaccination rate.
The Australian Capital Territory has already reached more than 95 per cent fully vaccinated, but is still restricting travel to some ‘high-risk’ areas.
In Victoria and New South Wales the Premiers have decided the need to alleviate economic hardship must come before the risk of opening before 90 per cent, and that after long lockdowns their populations need a decent Christmas.
Australia has a federalised system of Government. It means that State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers have the final say on measures to combat the pandemic.
Inevitably this means there will be no uniform plan for opening borders and allowing travel from one jurisdiction to another. We have to live with that.
It is also fair to say that none of the six Premiers and two Chief Ministers signed up for what the country as a whole has been experiencing over the last year and a half.
Running a State or a Territory has more to do with building schools or planning roads than balancing issues of life and death.
Is it too much to respect the decisions they are making now and leaving any inquests until after COVID-19 has been tamed if not beaten?
Sadly the answer is ‘no’ in the case of the country’s right-wing Murdoch media.
Labor’s McGowan has been pilloried for sticking to his 90 per cent vaccination target, while Gutwein, a Liberal, has been left virtually untouched for making the same decision.
It’s just another case of the old man in New York saying ‘jump’ and his Australian flunkies asking ‘how high?’
