Newspoll: McGowan earns universal praise

Premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan. Picture: AAP

Mark McGowan was giving his daily update on conquering COVID-19 on Monday — another zero for overnight cases, the fourth in a week — when he was interrupted by the heckling of an over-enthusiastic supporter in a passing car: “F..king love you, buddy.”

That was followed by an admiring “woooooo!”, all of which the Auslan interpreter behind him duly interpreted to the live audience.

Newspoll on premiers in coronavirus crisis

McGowan joked that such strong language was rarely heard in the electorate he was standing in — the coastal strip of Rockingham where working-class voters elected the former Royal Navy officer in as their Labor MP in 1996.

West Australians were even urged last week to stand on their driveway to give him a round of applause, and hundreds did.

“It is time for Western Australia to thank Mark McGowan for the fantastic work he is doing to keep us all safe,” said social media event organiser Angie Barkley.

A sheepish McGowan said later: “I don’t think that is necessary.”

McGowan has in fact been almost universally praised throughout the state for his steady but steely crisis leadership, barring a few early skirmishes with the AMA over a lack of PPE and latterly the State School Teachers Union over his firm directive to reopen schools this week.

Yet it was an ashen McGowan who faced the media five weeks ago when a flotilla of cruise ships headed for Fremantle, with unreliable reports of infected passengers so numerous they could have filled all Perth’s hospital ICU beds.

Fearing a repeat of the Ruby Princess debacle that had erupted days earlier in Sydney, McGowan called up the commonwealth and defence force to demand a mutual course of action.

“I will not allow what happened in Sydney to happen here,” he said. “The passengers and the crew will not be walking around the streets.”

Newspoll on premiers in coronavirus crisis

McGowan with his tight ministerial team have closed all state borders, banned West Australians from travelling inside their state and even come down hard on panic grog buying in a spate of unprecedented and draconian new laws.

But with few exceptions, he’s won support for being both collaborative and fiercely parochial — collegial in tone when he sits on the National Cabinet meeting between the Prime Minister and premiers, and fierce on pressing local issues like the cruise ships.

As he faces a state election early next year, it’s as well McGowan’s electors have loved hearing him make his most common utterance: “My first priority has to be protecting Western Australians.”