Coronavirus: WA Premier Mark McGowan admits to ‘errors all round’ over sheep ship handling

WA Premier Mark McGowan has conceded his health department was informed of three sick crew on the Al Kuwait ship before it berthed.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: AAP

Contrite West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has conceded his state’s health department was informed of three sick crew on board the Al Kuwait sheep ship before it berthed at Fremantle port.

Mr McGowan on Wednesday afternoon said there had “clearly been some errors made all round” in the handling of the ship by both state and commonwealth authorities, but was particularly “dis­appointed” that an email to the state’s Department of Health did not raise red flags.

He stopped short of apologising to federal Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud, however, instead saying there had been ­errors made “all round”.

Mr McGowan had lashed out at the federal government’s Border Force and agriculture departments over a “failure to notify WA authorities” of coronavirus symptoms among Al Kuwait crew. Six crew have been found to have the virus and authorities were boarding the ship on Wednesday to test the remaining people on board.

Mr Littleproud’s office on Wednesday released emails sent by his department to WA authorities ahead of the ship’s docking in Fremantle, which detailed high temperatures detected in three of the ship’s crew. The email also said that there was “no concern for COVID-19 on board”.

The information was received several hours before a Fremantle pilot and a trainee went aboard the vessel to help it berth. The pilot and trainee, who were wearing PPE, are now self-isolating.

Mr McGowan conceded that the email “plainly” should have raised red flags within the health department, noting that the pressure and stress of the past few months may have taken its toll. “These are highly stressed and in very difficult situations everyone involved confronts. We have to learn from our mistakes,” he said.

WA Health’s director of communicable disease control, Paul Armstrong, said the email was part of a large volume of health information sent to the department and the crew would not have been permitted to leave the vessel.

“We have to make an assessment of whether that is a high enough risk for COVID to act on it … There wasn’t very much risk at all if that was COVID,” Dr Armstrong said.

Opposition Leader Liza Harvey accused the Premier of amplifying the risk posed by the ship to stoke community fear and help justify his support for a continued hard closure of the WA border. She said the Premier had thrown a “panic grenade” into the community.

The 57,000 sheep stranded in a Perth feedlot because of the outbreak on the ship that was to carry them to the Middle East may now have to make the voyage during the northern summer months.

The federal Department of Agriculture said the exporter responsible for the sheep, Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading, could apply for an exemption to allow the sheep to sail to the ­Middle East after June 1. The government banned live exports during the three months from June as part of its response to the deaths of thousands of sheep in hot northern hemisphere conditions.

A spokesman for the department said the exporter was considering leaving the sheep at the feedlot, finding alternative markets or processing the sheep for domestic consumption. The department’s independent regulator has the authority to grant a caveat that would allow for a shipment to be made during the hot season.

“At this stage, it will be difficult for the vessel to depart with a live animal shipment before the June 1 northern hemisphere prohibition period commences, however, the legislation provides that the independent regulator may grant an exemption to an exporter to sail,” the spokesman said.