This opinion article appeared in The West Australian on 20 January 2022:
There was an interesting article on page 19 of the business section of last Wednesday’s West Australian, in which Perth hospitality business leaders said in the first line that the industry is “unlikely to survive widespread COVID outbreaks, and (they) would support a delay to the border reopening if guidelines on how to handle the virus were established.”
Their support for a delay was so a plan for how the industry would operate could be released, saying “without one, business would be too difficult, particularly for small operators”.
It’s a simple, unequivocable message to the Government and the Premier.
The question however is why, after two years of COVID impacts in Western Australia, has that plan not been written already?
We knew that COVID was coming back in 2019 (it’s in the name), and our first cases here were found two years ago in February 2020.
By March 2020 a health emergency had been declared and widespread restrictions were put in place.
Sure, during the intervening two years we have been relatively COVID free while it spread around the world, and kudos to the State Government for that achievement.
But while it spread around the world, including the rest of Australia, we should have been using our time in isolation to get prepared.
The outcome – that COVID would eventually arrive here – was always a certainty, and the McGowan Government has had two years to plan for it. Two years to provide the certainty that business is still calling for today!
It has also had two years to get the monitoring ready, but we are no closer to knowing what compliance or enforcement, if any, will be applied.
The same two-year period could have been used to put in place a standardised compensation program for businesses damaged by Government enforced lockdowns, instead of the current ad-hoc announcements they do after each incident.
So, should a delay in the February 5th opening date be necessary to get appropriate systems in place?
Given the McGowan Government has had two years, will another two weeks or two months make much difference?
The WA Premier Mark McGowan has announced February 5th as the opening date for Western Australia’s borders and told us that COVID vaccination is the key to his transition plan when he does open up the state.
There is no doubt that vaccination is critical. I topped mine up with my booster shot two weeks ago, as much because it helps to protect the community and the most vulnerable as for my own protection. Should I get infected it will both reduce the impact on me and reduce the chances of my spreading it to others who might be badly affected.
In NSW between the 16th of June and December 25th last year unvaccinated people make up 64% of hospitalised COVID patients, 73% of those in ICU, and 70% of those who died. They make up 5% of the community.
However, as the experience in the eastern states has demonstrated, high vaccination rates don’t preclude the spread of the virus.
And business can’t take it for granted that their lives and their incomes will go back to normal, because the WA Safe Transition plan still includes public health and social measures including lock downs in the case of outbreaks.
The Government has warned us of hard times ahead.
It is surely obvious to us all that COVID outbreaks in Western Australia are inevitable, despite high vaccination levels.
Victoria and NSW both hit double vaccination rates over 90% in November last year, before the omicron explosions in which both are recording tens of thousands of new cases every day.
Western Australia has reached 88% double dose vaccination, and should pass 90% in the next few weeks, prior to February 5th.
As we do so we have a Government telling us that it would be foolish not to expect an outbreak here, especially as omicron surges everywhere else.
When COVID inevitably arrives into our bubble, the impact on the community and particularly businesses will depend on the response plan the Government has in place.
It should already be in place! The Government has had two years to get it done, during which it has had the greatest economic boom in our state’s history; a boom which has left Mark McGowan’s Treasury coffers overflowing with cash.
That business should be asked to support a delay while the McGowan Government gets a plan together reflects two years of inertia and wasted time, and business deserves better.