How the west was won despite heartbreak of lockout

Families split apart by Mark McGowan’s hard border closure are challenging him to provide health advice to back his actions.

Rachel and Jeff Mews with Rylan, Jolie and Madison. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Australia’s de facto secessionist Mark McGowan might be hailed a hero in his home state, but the West Australian Premier was coming to be seen as a pariah by families who have been split apart by his hard border closure and are challenging him to provide health advice to back his actions.

The anger has been particularly acute in South Australia, which has recorded fewer COVID cases than Western Australia and just four deaths, but where many families working in mining, banking and public health have been barred from moving between states to see their loved ones.

Mr McGowan’s list of captors has included former fellow Labor premier Jay Weatherill, now based in Perth with his wife and two daughters heading the Andrew Forrest-backed childcare reform group, Thrive by Five, and unable to return to SA to see his aged parents. Mr Weatherill was not critical of Mr McGowan and said his detractors did not grasp the psyche of the state of Western Australia, saying the Premier was regarded as “a rock star” within WA.

“Mum and Dad are pretty elderly and I would dearly love to be able to see them,” Mr Weatherill said. “But you have got to understand the Western Australian people. A lot of them didn’t want to join Australia in the first place.”

Mr Weatherill’s laid-back analysis isn’t shared by other families split between the two states who are desperate to be reunited with parents, siblings and children and are relieved that the McGowan government has announced a timeline to take down the barriers.

Rachel and Jeff Mews work for ANZ bank and arrived in South Australia from Perth on March 23, having no friends or support group in SA when Mr Mews won a promotion within the bank and was posted to Adelaide.

They have not seen their families in Perth since, and have missed significant birthdays and other milestones and worry about ageing relatives.

Mrs Mews said the forced border closure had been hard to ­explain to her young children, Rylan, 13, Jolie, 11, and Madison, 9, who missed their grandparents in Western Australia.

“It’s just heartbreaking and it’s made worse by the fact that it seems completely unnecessary,” Mrs Mews said.

“It makes zero sense given that SA has done such a great job containing the virus.

“I know people back in Perth are saying the Premier is a hero, but we feel like we have just ­become a political football when there is no health reason to stop us from going there or our families from coming here.”

Mental health nurse Emmillee Goodwin moved to regional Western Australia from SA to take up a new job before the lockdown kicked in and has been stuck there ever since.

“I missed my mum’s 50th,” she said. “I haven’t seen her for eight months now, I haven’t seen Dad for over a year. Just to give them all a hug would be the best Christmas present ever.”

Mr McGowan indicated this week that he was prepared to lift aspects of his hard border lockdown but has not shifted from his prediction that the border could still remain closed into next year.

Human Rights Watch issued a withering attack on the West Australian government this week for causing “trauma” after interviewing 17 West Australians who had been refused exemptions to re-enter their home state, including a father in Queensland who has been separated from his three young children for 10 months and has been refused entry twice.