Premiers, put down your guns and get us out of this

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Getty Images

As a kid in Perth, the story of our state’s 1933 vote to cut itself adrift from the rest of Australia was a part of history lessons and barbecue chatter by parents when, over a long neck of Emu Bitter, footy talk turned to how the VFL was pinching all our best players.

This grumbling grew louder when a West Australian star ended up wearing the Big V playing against our boys. We would have seceded back in ’33 if they had let us, is how it went.

Fast forward four decades, and I count myself as a Victorian having spent most of my adult life living a short walk or a tram ride from the MCG.

WA Premier Mark McGowan may have been born in NSW but he knows how to tap this ­secessionist streak in his adopted state. It seems the more dire the ­nation’s Covid-19 outbreak gets, the stronger McGowan’s isolationist rhetoric gets.

This week he accused the Prime Minister of being on a “mission” to bring the virus to his virus-free state as he, along with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, started sliding away from the vaccination-linked national road map out of border closures.

“Why are they on this mission to bring Covid into Western Australia, to infect our public, to ­ensure that we shut down parts of the economy, that we lose jobs, people get sick and some people die? Haven’t they seen what’s happening in NSW? I can’t understand why they’re doing this,” he said.

The McGowan position is profoundly damaging to the state of our federation. Yes, it plays well to the parochial home crowd. But ultimately the biggest losers in this could be Sandgropers. WA may be swimming in mining royalties, but as the federal Treasurer pointed out this week, it is suffering a ­labour shortage and needs tourists.

Not even Daniel Andrews, the lockdown king, could keep Delta under control. McGowan ignores the reality that it is only a matter of time before Delta crosses the Nullarbor and tests the state’s already struggling health system.

Then what? Will McGowan come begging to the federal government and eastern states? If this were to happen, WA is likely to need the help of the better-equipped health services from Victoria and NSW. And, true to our federation, the biggest eastern states should stand ready to help WA. This is how a healthy nation works.

All premiers have been guilty of playing “State of Origin” politics over the past 18 months. The smugness of Gladys Berejiklian drove us all mad in lockdown in 2020. Even on Friday, now managing her own cluster, the NSW Premier took the chance to say how pleased she was that most state leaders are “coming around” to her strategy. But it was a relatively gentle aside.

Andrews has spent much of the past months getting even with ­Berejiklian, talking in terms of the “NSW incursion” and noting that Delta was “raging” through NSW and that a ring of steel should be erected around Sydney.

But on Friday Andrews struck a different tone, even saying “I agree with Gladys” when referencing one aspect of the fight against Delta. He also seemed proud that the PM had given Victoria a “shout out” about its vaccination efforts.

Once the nation hits the agreed upon 80 per cent vaccination levels, WA must rejoin the federation. This is not without risks, both in terms of the virus and politics for McGowan.

But Australians need our premiers to put down their guns and work together to get us out of this mess. For decades, our states have sent firefighters and emergency workers interstate to save lives in times of fire and flood.

Can you imagine a premier playing games with another premier after such a catastrophe? ­Exactly. They wouldn’t do it.