Mark McGowan’s silver lining: coronavirus pandemic’s ‘lasting benefit’ to economy

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has boasted that the pandemic has brought lasting economic benefits to his state.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Jackson Flindell

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has boasted that the pandemic has brought lasting economic benefits to his state, while saying that if WA brought down its interstate borders, “all we will do is we will lose jobs”.

Mr McGowan insisted on Thursday that his government maintained WA’s hard border on health advice, but in an outburst that has riled the state’s Chamber of Commerce he said that there was no economic benefit in opening up.

“The benefit to opening to the Northern Territory or South Australia — for Western Australia — is not there. There is no benefit,” Mr McGowan said.

“Far more West Australians will go there on holidays than people­ from SA and NT come here on holidays All we will do is we will lose jobs.“

Western Australia‘s border remains­ closed to most but restrictions will ease slightly from ­Monday, when people from Victoria who are granted permission to enter WA will be able to quarantine at a house instead of under guard at a hotel at a cost of $2512.

Mr McGowan said that he would continue to resist calls to open up faster.

“The other states want us to open the border so that WA tourists­ will flood east, not so that people from the east will come here,” Mr McGowan said.

“They are only saying all this for very self-interested reasons becaus­e ­we have higher incomes, we have people that are more used to travelling and therefore we will have more tourists go from WA to the east.

“That is why they are saying this. They are not advocating it for any other reason (than) that they want to see WA incomes spent in Sydney or Brisbane or wherever it might be.

“Our view is let’s just be cautiou­s, let’s keep the virus out and when the health advice says we can bring the border down, we will.”

Western Australia has not recorded­ a case of coronavirus in the community for 175 days now.

WA Chamber of Commerce chief executive Chris Rodwell responded­ with alarm to the Premier’s comments, saying that the business community expected decisions about the border were being made solely on health ­advice, not on the basis of economic protectionism.

Mr McGowan said restrictions to guard the health of West Australians, “and the upside of that is, without having COVID here, our economy is now the strongest in the nation”.

“We have worked constructively with all companies to get more people into WA from the east as well, so whether it’s Rio or BHP or Woodside, the major employers­ are moving their workforces to the west and that’s a good thing for our state and will be a lasting benefit out of a difficult period­,” he said.

“One of the things you have got to do out of COVID is get lasting benefits, or lasting reforms, that improve the state so that you can come out of it stronger and safer and more secure than ever before.

“So, clearly, moving the ­workforce from the east to the west is an important lasting benefit­ that we have secured via our hard border and our strong, strict approach to the companies.”