All Mark McGowan wants for Christmas is Steven Marshall far away

The WA Premier’s refusal to sit in the same room as the SA leader over a fear of catching Covid has sparked ridicule.

Mark McGowan has become a figure of fun in South Australia after he refused to attend Friday’s national cabinet meeting for fear of catching the coronavirus off Steven Marshall.

But neither the SA Premier nor SA-based Western Australia families are seeing the funny side of his somewhat paranoid decision, with Mr Marshall demanding the WA Premier release the health advice on which his Cabinet snub was based.

Mr McGowan insisted on Thursday that his own health advice was that WA residents should keep away from South Australians and that his refusal to sit in the same room as Mr Marshall was a case of leading by example.

“While it is safe to travel to Canberra based on our health advice, given the restrictions in place for people who have knowingly mixed with residents of South Australia, it was appropriate that the Premier join the meeting from Perth instead,” his spokesman said.

“Like with all other jurisdictions, South Australia can only become a ‘very low risk’ state once they have recorded at least 28 days of no community cases.

“While these restrictions are in place, it’s important the Premier lead by example and follow the health advice.”

Curiously, SA is now Covid-free with no active cases, while WA has 13 active cases. On Thursday, SA recorded its 12th consecutive day with no new cases and has not had a case of community transmission since April.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall shows Western Australia his Covid-safe check-in. Picture: Getty Images

Premier Steven Marshall said he would seek an explanation from Mr McGowan as to the basis on which he refused to attend Cabinet.

“I will certainly be asking the Premier there to consider the excellent results we have here in South Australia,” Mr Marshall said.

“I think there are many people here in our state who have got friends, they’ve got family, they’ve got loved ones in Western Australia – they would love to see them for Christmas.

“We’ve done extraordinarily well. I think it’s time for Western Australia to again consider lifting those restrictions in time for Christmas.”

Mr Marshall said Mr McGowan’s decision to steer clear from him was “extraordinary” and admitted they had not yet spoken about the situation.

“South Australians haven’t been stopped from going to the ACT for a very long time and Western Australians have been going for weeks so you have South Australians and Western Australians mixing over there,” he said on ABC Radio.

“They’re not being prohibited from doing that but for some reason Premier McGowan has formed the opinion that presumably, based on some sort of health advice, he can’t be in the same room as me.

“I think he needs to provide that advice to us and let us know why.”

The impact of Mr McGowan’s border closures have been emotionally difficult and financially onerous for WA families stuck in SA, who are still required to self-isolate for two weeks should they return home to the West.

Rachel and Jeff Mews work for ANZ bank and arrived in SA 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 and their three young children Rylan, 13, Jolie, 11, and Madison, 9, have not seen their grandparents in WA since.

Almost two weeks ago, the Mews family took the extraordinary decision to jump in their car and drive 3022km to Darwin when the Parafield cluster was still underway in Adelaide, fearful their planned WA family reunion would again be vetoed by Mr McGowan.

Mrs Mews and her children will fly from Darwin to Perth next week while Mr Mews will drive alone in the family car on a 4018km trip to be reunited with the family for Christmas.

“The whole thing is ridiculous,” Mrs Mews told The Australian.

“Nobody understands their criteria. We were convinced that when the Parafield cluster started that the WA Government would do this again so we just said, let’s go, and we jumped in the car and left for Darwin.

“To say it’s an inconvenience is an understatement. Our son missed his year seven graduation but we gave him the choice and he said he would rather see his grandparents. Bring on 2021.”