Mark McGowan pressured by resources sector to ease restrictions on FIFO workers

WA Premier Mark McGowan has been pressured by his state’s most lucrative industry to bite the bullet and ease restrictions.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has been pressured by the resources industry to fast-track new measures to make it easier for FIFO workers employed in the state.

Speaking on Friday, Mr McGowan outlined more flexible guidelines for shortened isolation periods when WA moves to its “high case load environment”. The Premier was slammed for being light on details, refusing to give a concrete date for the legislation change.

The WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy called on the WA Government to act now to ease pressure on the lucrative mining industry, which relies heavily on interstate workers travelling across borders.

The new measures would cut isolation periods for close contacts from 14 days to seven, remove the definition of a casual contact and allow critical workers deemed close contacts to continue working if they were asymptomatic and screened negative to a rapid antigen test daily.

However, Mr McGowan said the stringent rules currently in place were still necessary in the state’s widely-criticised effort in stopping the community spread of the Omicron variant.

Mr McGowan said the critical worker definition would not take effect until WA was in a “very high case load environment”.

“Today we have recorded 12 new local cases,” he said.

“If we were to move too soon, ahead of higher levels of community transmission, we would risk spreading Covid through the resources sector and therefore other parts of our economy. This would only have a detrimental effect on the sector and our economy.”

CME chief executive Paul Everingham backed the shortening of isolation periods and easing restrictions on FIFO workers.

PERTH, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 20: Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan speaks to media during a press conference at Dumas House on January 20, 2022 in Perth, Australia. Western Australia has closed its border on and off to the rest of Australia since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Premier has now delayed the border opening which was scheduled for February 5th. (Photo by Matt Jelonek/Getty Images)

“In a shutdown and maintenance team of 40 or 50, it will mean the entire team is not necessarily displaced from work, which would be devastating,” Mr Everingham said via The West.

“Displacing entire work teams could have very significant operational impacts.

“We’re very comfortable with the new definitions and guidelines, it’s just that we’d like them to be implemented now rather than waiting.”

The back-and-forth came a day after business columnist Terry McCrann said “any opposition” to Mark McGowan’s hard border has to “come from business”.

Bunnings boss slams WA’s hard border

Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott declared it was impossible to run a business from Perth and, along with other executives, will relocate to the east coast.

“Wesfarmers is the single-most important company in terms of the lives of ordinary West Australians – it employs tens of thousands of Western Australians,” Mr McCrann told Sky News host Rita Panahi this weekend.

“It might well lead to the permanent departure of Wesfarmers and other major companies from Perth.”

Covid has made its way to the economically critical Pilbara region in Western Australia’s north, with at least one BHP worker testing positive and colleagues now in isolation.

PERTH, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 21: Mining machinery on display at Elizabeth Quay in the Perth CBD ahead of the The Resources Technology Showcase 2019 will be held in Perth 27-28 November. November 21, 2019 (Photo by Faith Moran/Getty Images)

The contractor had a negative result from a rapid antigen test before flying to the Yandi iron ore mine on Tuesday. She felt unwell on Sunday and then tested positive to a PCR test taken at the Spinifex accommodation village.

Last week, two Rio Tinto fly-in fly-out workers tested positive at Perth Airport.

Meanwhile, new modelling on the Omicron variant by The University of Western Australia suggests the state should be able to cope with an outbreak if the borders reopen in late February, having been delayed from February 5.

Infectious disease modeller and lead researcher George Milne found the peak would come about 55 days after the border reopened and last a couple of weeks.

The new modelling, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggests a peak of about 430 people in hospital two months after borders reopen, with about 10 per cent of those, or about 43, in intensive care.

- with NCA Newswire