I’m writing this piece from the confines of the Canberra apartment I call home for about 20 weeks each year during sittings of Federal Parliament.
It’s a non-sitting week this week, and in normal circumstances I’d be at home in Geraldton or elsewhere in my electorate of Durack, which spans some 1.6 million square kilometres from Cervantes to Kununurra.
But I’m here because, like the most of Australia’s eastern seaboard, Canberra is in lockdown.
With Parliament due to sit again next week, going home isn’t an option.
What started as a seven-day stay-at-home order for Canberrans has been extended by another two weeks.
It’s not fun.
Like West Australians, Canberrans have been lucky enough to avoid the worst of this pandemic, with no community transmission in the nation’s capital for more than a year before this outbreak.
But with a full vaccination rate of more than 30 per cent – only behind Tasmania as the best in the country – ACT residents know that for all this pain, National Cabinet’s plan to get us back to something resembling normality once we reach an 80 per cent vaccination rate at least gives them light at the end of the tunnel.
Contrast that with the situation in WA, where I fear Mark McGowan’s extraordinary comments on Sunday and again yesterday may have significantly dimmed that light.
I can only hope that it hasn’t extinguished that light altogether.
The Premier’s claim that he will continue to pursue a zero COVID policy even when we have reached 70 or 80 per cent vaccination has West Australians rightly asking when – if ever – our lives can go back to something close to normal.
If the Premier thinks it is normal to need the permission of WA Police to enter your own state, we have a serious problem.
His declaration that he would not consider reopening the State’s border to NSW until they get down to “zero or minimal spread” flies in the face of the very National Plan he agreed to at National Cabinet not just once, but on three separate occasions.
Importantly, as the Prime Minister said yesterday: “The commitments made in the National Plan are not just commitments made to each other, they are commitments made to our own people”.
It is clear that, like for most of the world, NSW returning to “zero or minimal spread” is simply unattainable.
If, at an 80 per cent vaccination rate, West Australians are still subject to interstate border closures and snap lockdowns whenever COVID seeps in, it logically follows that there is absolutely no possibility of reopening to international travel or leaving behind the devastating lockdowns of the past 18 months.
Reopening interstate and international borders isn’t just about going on that Bali holiday so many West Australians have missed.
It’s about ensuring that our farmers and our hospitality businesses in regional WA have access to the labour they need to get their crop off or serve their customers.
Indeed, if COVID zero is Mr McGowan’s goal, he has told us time and time again that no approach other than harsh border restrictions and lockdowns is effective.
In a pandemic isolation is a blessing, and we are blessed with that critical attribute.
Our isolation, and the good work of the State and Federal governments, means we have been spared the worst of this pandemic.
But with COVID-19 endemic around the world, our greatest test still lies ahead.
So we must stick to the plan and have faith in our vaccines and the expert advice of the Doherty Institute.
Because if we don’t, we will become a hermit kingdom, indefinitely locking down and being locked out of the rest of the world.
The Doherty Institute modelling tells us that once we achieve that golden number of 80 per cent vaccination, COVID-19 hospitalisations will fall considerably, to something like what we see routinely with the flu.
At that time our focus must shift from minimising case numbers to minimising deaths and hospitalisations.
Anthony Albanese’s declaration that he will back in Mark McGowan’s decision to walk back his commitment to the National Plan is very disappointing and little more than a transparent attempt to cash in on Mr McGowan’s recent electoral success in WA.
Mr Albanese needs to back in the National Plan without qualification and back in the State Premiers – including his Labor colleagues like Daniel Andrews, who are upholding the spirit of that plan.
As I wrote on these pages a couple of weeks ago, WA is still lagging behind the rest of the country on vaccinations, probably because we have had it (relatively) good when it comes to community spread.
As of August 14, just 41.94 per cent of those in WA aged over 16 had received a first jab, and only 22.86 per cent were fully vaccinated. We are languishing at the bottom of the national vaccination ladder.
There is no disputing the fact that those rates need to pick up, and that is only likely to come if people see light at the end of the tunnel.
The Premier’s comments only serve to undermine the public’s confidence in the vaccine as our exit strategy and weaken the sense of urgency needed to get this job done.
Based on the Premier’s latest comments, many West Australians would be forgiven for asking what the point of getting vaccinated is in the first place.
No one wants it to take another lockdown or outbreak in WA to get our jab numbers to where they need to be.
This is not only an issue for WA.
The National Cabinet’s plan is contingent on every State reaching the vaccination thresholds before we can move on to the next phase as a nation.
If WA doesn’t pick up the pace we could end up holding back the entire country.
So I say again to my fellow sandgropers, this is our Team Australia moment. We need every eligible West Australian to roll up their sleeve and get their jab as soon as they can. Not only for WA, but for the nation.
And we need a Premier who is willing to hold up his end of the bargain and give us the incentive to do it.
