WA Premier Mark McGowan McGowan in retreat on border controls

The WA Premier has been forced into an embarrassing backdown over plans to extend border controls well beyond the ­pandemic.

Michael McClure Liberal candidate for Rockingham gives Mark a how to vote for Liberals form. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has been forced into an embarrassing backdown over plans to extend the state’s border controls well beyond the ­pandemic.

After initially flagging he would consider keeping the state’s visa-like “G2G” approval system for ­interstate arrivals beyond the coronavirus crisis, he wound back the comments just hours later after an angry response from the federal government, the business lobby and constitutional experts.

Just 11 days out from the WA election, Mr McGowan — who enjoys an enormous lead in opinion polls — on Tuesday morning revealed he was in discussions with WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson over how the state could maintain border controls into the future, citing their effectiveness in curtailing the flow of ­illegal drugs.

Quarantine officials at the WA border.

That would include examining whether the G2G system — under which the entry of visitors into the state from states deemed to be “very low risk” of spreading coronavirus is approved by police and logged — could remain indefinitely. Drug use in WA had ­reduced by about 25 per cent over the course of the pandemic due to disruptions of supply, Mr Mc­Gowan said, and expanding the border restrictions could help maintain that progress.

“If civil libertarians and the like don’t like that, my argument would be that keeping meth out of Western Australia is very, very ­important,” he said.

But he recanted the comments by Tuesday afternoon, promising not to extend the G2G system and instead focusing on beefing up ­vehicle inspections at the border.

“When we talk about extending the system, it’s about extending the checks on the border,” he said. “The G2G pass, once the pandemic is over, we don’t intend to extend its use.”

The initial comments were seized on by Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup, who said they showed why it was important for West Australians not to cede “total ­control” of WA’s parliament to the Labor Party at the ­election.

While Mr Kirkup supports the state’s current border measures, he said the initial proposal to ­potentially extend restrictions was “massive overreach”. “It’s quite ­extraordinary that the Premier is suggesting that West Australians who are trying to return home or people from across the country who might be visiting family here in WA should be treated the same as meth dealers,” he said.

Business groups also reacted angrily, amid concerns that the potential extension of the approvals system would inhibit trade and further dent the tourism industry.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia was committed to open borders under its Constitution. “The job of controlling drug use in the individual states is surely a matter for the police and … our history has been of a single, united country since Federation,” he said.

After a legal challenge to WA’s restrictions by Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer, the High Court ruled last year that WA’s border restrictions were valid under the Constitution due to the health risks from the pandemic.

Mr McGowan initially said the government would seek legal ­advice as to whether stopping the import of drugs would be a similarly valid reason to restrict the border under the Constitution. But constitutional expert ­George Williams, from the University of NSW, said making a case for border restrictions on the grounds of inhibiting the illicit drug trade would be far more difficult.