West Australian Premier Mark McGowan gloats as the state records budget surplus

The West Australian Premier is kicking off his feud with NSW again, declaring the eastern state “failed” and should’ve followed his strict approach to Covid.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has announced a massive budget surplus for the state and, in the same breath, reignited his bitter feud with NSW.

Announcing a $2.4 billion forecast surplus for the current financial year yesterday, Mr McGowan declared “the government in NSW failed”.

“They don’t like to hear it and the commentators in NSW don’t like to hear it, but they did,” he said.

Western Australia has had the strongest border closures in the nation throughout the past two years.

The state earlier this month announced it would reopen on February 5 next year, when it is expected 90 per cent of its population over the age of 12 will be double vaccinated.

Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Jackson Flindell/The West Australian

Speaking to reporters after the surplus announcement, Mr McGowan took aim at NSW, saying it had “comprehensively failed” its people.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has been fighting for a change to how the GST is carved up between the states, calling for Western Australia to not be given as much GST, thanks to its surplus during the Covid pandemic.

Despite that, Mr McGowan said he would not budge on how much the state receives from the GST.

“NSW are the architects of their position,” he said.

“(NSW) announced today a deficit of nearly $20 billion. Their one-year deficit in NSW is two-thirds of the entire state debt of Western Australia that has been racked up over the last 120 years and they’ve achieved that in one year. They’ve failed comprehensively.”

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is fighting for a change in the GST carve-up. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

Mr McGowan has repeatedly taken aim at NSW throughout the pandemic but his comments yesterday were some of his strongest.

He blamed NSW for infecting not only the rest of the country, but New Zealand also.

“They were out there saying gold standard contact tracing would solve the problem. Well it didn’t. Then they paid the price, and the rest of the country paid the price as well,” he said.

“They infected Victoria twice, they infected New Zealand. They did it to us, but we did what had to be done in late June and we got rid of the virus here, which of course no one over there acknowledges or remembers.”

Perth when it went into lockdown earlier this year due to Covid cases. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tony McDonough

On Monday, Mr McGowan announced the state had achieved its target for 80 per cent of adults aged over 12 years old to be fully vaccinated with two doses and set a date for the border reopening.

He said the state’s border would reopen from 12.01am, on Saturday, February 5 and that this date was “locked in” to give Western Australians and local businesses certainty.

“We begin a new phase of Covid-19 management in WA,” he said.

Interstate arrivals will still need to fill out a G2G Pass, they must also be double dosed and will have to provide a negative test result within 72 hours of their arrival.

If their trip is for more than six days, they must also have a PCR test within 48 hours of arrival in WA.

International arrivals will also need to be fully vaccinated and tested.

Today I can announce that at 12:01am Saturday, 5 February, Western Australia will ease its hard border restrictions for vaccinated travellers.

This will be a major step forward for our State in how we manage the COVID-19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/SVPvoWMYPw

— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) December 13, 2021

Mr McGowan said news of the reopening would be a “cause of relief or even celebration” for some but would concern great concern for others.

“After the 5th of February, cases will begin to appear in the community, that is inevitable but it will not be a cause for panic — it will be a reminder to do the right thing,” he said.

“We’re in this together and we will get through this together. I know the community will keep doing the right thing.”