Coronavirus: Clive Palmer tests WA’s border exemptions

Almost 3300 travellers — some excused from quarantine because they are essential workers — have been arriving each week in WA from interstate.

Businessman Clive Palmer. Picture: AAP

Almost 3300 travellers — some excused from quarantine because they are essential workers with a special category of exemption — have been arriving each week in Western Australia from interstate despite its “hard border closure”, the Federal Court has heard.

Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer has launched a case against the state of WA because he was denied an exemption to enter the state in May.

WA has not detected a case of coronavirus in the community for three months. Since the resurgence in cases in Victoria and NSW, the McGowan Labor government has further restricted the number of people who can enter WA and the types of exemptions available. In addition, WA has restricted returning Australian citizens and permanent residents to 525 a week. Those arriving from overseas are tested at Perth Airport and taken directly to hotel quarantine.

Associate Professor Kamalini Lokuge, a global pandemic expert who has been advising the commonwealth, told the Federal Court on Tuesday that only border measures could prevent importation of coronavirus.

“Not allowing people in is better than quarantine measures,” she said.

“Allowing 4000 people in (a week) is going to increase risk and then there is the implementation.”

Associate Professor Lokuge is currently working with Victorian health authorities in response to the outbreak there. She predicted some of the factors that contributed to the Victorian and NSW resurgences, including high-risk groups such as casual workers with no sick leave on temporary visas with significant disincentives to get tested.

“Victoria is a clear example — (it had) the highest uptake of testing and we still had an outbreak,” Associate Professor Lokuge said.

“You can still have subgroups in your population where control is not good.”

Earlier, Associate Professor Lokuge answered questions about six cases of locally acquired coronavirus in WA for which there was no known source between April 5 and April 17, saying there was a series of measures that prevented further spread.

This was the height of community spread in WA. On Tuesday there were three known active cases in the state, all returned travellers in hotel quarantine in Perth. Across the state, contact tracing and regional borders were credited with helping limit the tally of coronavirus cases in WA to 659. Nine people have died.

“Every case, just on probability, will not cause a major outbreak but what we know is that they have, and they have in multiple settings, and, coming back to Victoria, that is a very good example of that,” Associate Professor Lokuge said.