WA Premier Mark McGowan’s future under dark cloud amid lockdown backlash

WA Premier Mark McGowan’s very insular decision may be more damaging to him personally. PIcture: Getty Images

Business has had enough. The sporting world has had enough. Mark McGowan has been called a liar and a Muppet for his backflip on borders, and West Australian companies are seriously considering moving their headquarters to other states.

Yet the WA Premier’s very insular decision may be more damaging to him personally.

He appears to have put one sandgroper off-side who is crucial to his hold on power: billionaire media mogul and businessman Kerry Stokes.

Stokes stepped down as executive chair of Seven Group in November but he remains chairman of Seven West Media, publisher of The West Australian newspaper.

Like many West Australians, Stokes flew overseas in January confident of a re-entry without quarantine after the McGowan government committed on December 13 to open the state’s border from February 5.

Stokes might have had a few choice words for McGowan on January 20 upon hearing of the bait and switch: borders would remain shut with no future date set for a reopening requiring full quarantine.

Beaver Creek at this time of year is good, but not indefinitely good.

In 2020, Stokes and his wife were exempted from the strict hotel quarantine that McGowan had imposed from March that year; a spokesman at the time explaining that Stokes had undergone a medical procedure. That is unlikely to be the case in 2022.

The withdrawal of support for McGowan in The West’s editorials since January 20 is stark. It should ring alarm bells for WA Labor.

“If Mark McGowan can’t be brave enough to make the right call (not simply the popular call) after 10 years as the WA Labor leader and a landslide election win that decimated his Opposition and left it with just two seats in the Lower House then who the hell can?” said the paper on January 25.

In the last week, big business and sport have delivered public body blows to McGowan.

Two of the West’s highest profile businessmen, Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott and Qantas chairman Richard Goyder, also the chair of the AFL, are moving east for the foreseeable future. They simply can’t run their businesses from WA.

Since McGowan’s decision, a fresh survey by the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry of 400 businesses has one in three of them experiencing an increase in resignations. 63 per cent of businesses feel the decision to cancel the border opening is negative or extremely negative.

In a state that relies on mining for 49 per cent of business, the threat of a hollowing out of diversified businesses is real.

“The survey definitely points to businesses who are not just looking at a temporary change but potentially a shift of headquarters. This is really significant” says CCI chief executive Chris Rodwell.

Rodwell says senior executives buying one way tickets with no idea of when they return is a harbinger for investment decisions. Last year there was a surge of investment interest in WA. Not any more.

After McGowan’s announcement to open the border in December, companies that had been in a holding pattern for nearly two years started hiring and committing contracts. Now there is no clarity around an opening date.

Business will adapt. In the last three years, a new terminal in Perth was built to cater for a Qantas flights to London. When borders remained shut, the airline’s chief executive Alan Joyce deftly rerouted London bound passengers via Darwin.

Adding to McGowan’s woes is the reputational damage with international students. This is a brain drain that hits universities, training providers and directly affects skilled jobs at a time when WA has the lowest unemployment levels in the country.

In the week after McGowan’s backflip, thousands of international passengers were bumped off flights.

Frustration and heartache of domestic passengers has been voiced by some of Australia’s best and fairest.

On Twitter, Australian Open finalist Matt Ebden upbraided McGowan for preventing him from being at the birth of his child and for lying to Western Australians. “I think everyone there is starting to see that everyone has been lied to for so long, the trust has been betrayed” he said.

Having just won the Big Bash League, a furious Perth Scorchers Josh Inglis wrote: “You have had two years to sort out your disaster of a hospital system with your record surplus. We all did what you asked of us so we could get out of this. And you spit in our faces and take away any hope West Aussies had of this ending. You are a disgrace to this state and a disgrace to this country. ABSOLUTE MUPPET.”

There are commercial consequences for the state. The NRL is now reconsidering its planned State of Origin match in Perth in June. That may be months away but tickets need to sell soon given the interest is overwhelmingly from states in the east.

Confusion and uncertainty rule in WA.

Cricketer Adam Gilchrist wrote on Twitter on Monday: “Can anyone remind me why WA residents looking to return home are having to wait until Feb 5 to get let in? Even though they will be in quarantine for two weeks. Why can’t they just head back now and start the process?”