WA Government to let AFLW players in despite hard border for everyone else

Katie Grace was told “no” when she tried to get into WA to see her dead son. She is “sickened to the core” by a double standard that has since emerged.

A Melbourne couple who were denied entry into Western Australia to bring their dead son home say they are “sickened” by new rules that give special treatment to professional athletes.

WA Premier Mark McGowan is under fire to explain why his government is allowing AFLW players from Carlton and Collingwood to fly into Perth for their matches against Fremantle and West Coast this weekend without quarantining while strict border rules apply to literally everyone else.

The move has been labelled a “joke” by some but the double standard is no laughing matter for Katie and Steve Grace who begged for an exemption to repatriate their son Jordan after he took his own life in December and were rejected.

“I want to cry just hearing that. I’m absolutely sickened to my core,” Katie told news.com.au.

“I’m not surprised — sports teams have always been given preferential treatment. But money talks, I suppose.

“It is so very heartless.”

Jordan Grace, a talented rugby player, took his own life in November just two days before his 21st birthday.

Jordan Grace took his own life late last year. When his parents applied for exemption to skip hotel quarantine and bring him home, they were denied.

Katie and Steve Grace are devastated at the news AFLW players will get the exemption they begged the WA Government for. Picture: Nine News

His parents said all they wanted to do was “get to him”. But when they applied for an exemption they were told the only way they could see their son was to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks first.

“So (WA authorities) then said well if you don’t want to hotel quarantine we will just deny you entry,” Katie told Nine News at the time.

“We weren’t going there for a holiday. We just wanted to go see our boy pack up his things and come home and bring him home with us.”

Premier McGowan said rules are rules and that the measures were in place to avoid ending up “in a situation NSW and Victoria ended up in”.

But the rules, it seems, don’t apply to all.

Gareth Parker from 6PR’s Breakfast program in WA said the rules were “staggering”.

“Now I don’t know about you but I was surprised yesterday to learn footy is again getting a special deal,” he told listeners.

“I love footy as much as anyone. I’ve played it, I’ve umpired it, I’ve coached it, I’m a member of a club, I pay to watch it on TV, I pay to go to games, and I’ve been a football fan my whole life.

“But this has got to stop. It is staggering that the WA government are happy to go into a third year of a special deal for footy, when ordinary citizens don’t have the same right to free movement around their own country and our vaccination rates are so high.

“I’m shocked that the government is about to continue with a special arrangement that’s denied to the rest of us, and I cannot accept that for a third year in a row these special rules are reasonable when the rights of so many are curtailed.

“It’s time to apply one rule for all travellers into and out of this state and it should be a rule that allows all businesses to flourish … and for families to reunite.”

Others were equally scathing. Commentator Gemma Tognini wrote that authorities weren’t even pretending to play fair anymore.

Carlton players will be among those allowed to fly into WA without quarantining over the weekend. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

WA Premier Mark McGowan is being accused of allowing a double standard. Picture: Colin Murty

“Don’t defend the ongoing separation of West Aussies from their families while the AFL again gets a free pass by saying ‘its sport, its different’,” she wrote on Twitter.

“Unless you’ve the guts to say it to someone who watched a loved one die over FaceTime, or hasn’t seen their dad in 2 years.”

Sports reporter Oliver Caffrey wrote: “The AFL has done it again. AFLW teams have been given exemptions to fly in and out of Perth this weekend while the WA border remains closed to the rest of the country.”

Academic Dr Erin Watson wrote: “This is a joke and completely unfair to all of us who have ‘played by the rules’ for 2 years. AFLW players should boycott.”

Tania Armstrong, 6PR’s sports reporter, told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell that “there’s a little bit of anger”.

“Not from sports fans, I can tell you, who are dying for some sporting fixtures because we haven’t had any interstate teams come since December.

“But there is anger from people who’ve been locked out of the state, desperate to get back, and I imagine there is a big backlog.

“There are thousands and thousands of people which WA Health are working through and granting exemptions to.”

Originally published as WA Government to let AFLW players in despite hard border for everyone else