West Australian Premier Mark McGowan shits the bed

"This evening, I would like to provide you with an update on our Safe Transition Plan, which we first announced in November. This plan was based on the impact of the Delta variant, which was prevalent in the Eastern States for six months, after it first emerged in NSW in June last year.

Under that plan - modelling at the time indicated we would peak at 338 daily cases, with 62 hospitalisations, and one life lost each day.

Unfortunately, the world changed in December - Omicron arrived.

Omicron is a whole new threat that we can’t ignore. And right now we don’t know the full picture of what Omicron could mean – but we do know how easily transmissible and infectious it is.

There is insufficient data to make any meaningful assumptions of what it will look like once Omicron takes full effect and case numbers peak over east.

But we know there has been a surge in hospitalisations around Australia, with an average of almost 5,000 Australians hospitalised a day since the start of the year with COVID-19.

And tragically, in just 19 days of 2022, we have seen 664 Australians lose their lives to COVID-19. It would be irresponsible and reckless for the State Government to ignore the facts and ignore the reality of the situation playing out on the east coast.

Allowing hundreds or thousands of Omicron infected people to fly straight into Perth from 5 February, with no testing, no quarantine and no public health measures, would cause a flood of COVID-19 across our State. It would cause a surge in cases, a surge in hospitalisations and result in thousands of people not being able to work or go to school. It would cripple our community, like it’s doing on the east coast.

What we do know about Omicron so far is that a third dose of the vaccine is so vital in giving people effective protection. We currently sit at 25.8% of third doses for Western Australians aged 16 and over.

But we can lift the third doses rate significantly, and we can give ourselves the best chance to vaccinate our children. If we can hold back this current Omicron outbreak, we will be one of the only places in the world that can achieve a high third dose rate before we reach widespread community transmission.

WA’S UPDATED TRANSITION PLAN
In light of what’s occurred in the rest of the country, having closely assessed the situation over east and listening to the latest health advice, we have reworked WA’s Safe Transition Plan to fit the environment that now confronts us. So, from 12:01am on Saturday February 5, a new hard border will be in place with a focus on both safety and compassion.

Under the new hard border settings, approved travelers are permitted to enter WA, or leave WA and return, with testing and quarantine requirements under the new expanded exemption criteria:
- Returning Western Australians, with strong recent connections or direct legitimate family connections with WA;
- Compassionate grounds including funeral, palliative care or terminally ill visitation;
- Member of the family of an approved traveler;
- People entering for urgent and essential medical treatment;
- Reasons of national and state security;
- Commonwealth and State officials, Members of Parliament, Diplomats;
- Provision of specialist skills not available in WA, health services, emergency service workers;
- People required to attend court matters, judicial officers and staff of court, tribunals and commissions; and
- Special considerations and extraordinary circumstances determined by the State Emergency Coordinator or Chief Health Officer.

INTERSTATE TRAVEL
If you’re coming from interstate as an approved traveler, you will need to meet the following requirements:
- Have an approved G2G Pass, under new exemption criteria;
- Be triple dose vaccinated if eligible (double dose vaccinated if not eligible for third);
- Provide proof of a negative Rapid Antigen Test within 24 hours before departure;
- Undertake 14 days of self-quarantine at a suitable premises, with the same requirements for household members at the self-quarantine premises;
- PCR testing within 48 hours of arrival and on day 12 of self-quarantine, and household members will also be required to do a PCR test on the traveler's day 12.
- Subject to mandatory use of G2G Now and in-person checks by WA Police as required
Additional requirements are in place for domestic road travel to keep WA safe:
- Approved domestic travelers to limit travel to 1,500km from road borders, to enable people to travel by road to suitable premises for quarantine in Perth from Eucla;
- Entry at the Kununurra border only for transport, freight and logistics and border community residents;
- Restricted travel into remote Aboriginal communities.

OVERSEAS TRAVEL
International travel into WA will be permitted with the following requirements:
- Meet the Commonwealth requirements to enter Australia under the arrivals cap;
- Undertake 14 days of mandatory quarantine including, seven days in hotel quarantine and seven days of self-quarantine at suitable premise, if eligible,
- PCR testing on days one, six, nine and 12, and household members will also be required to do a PCR test on the traveler's day 12
- Subject to mandatory use of G2G Now and in-person checks by WA Police as required
- International travel in-directly into WA via another state or territory will be subject to the same entry and quarantine requirements as domestic travelers
Current entry arrangements remain unchanged for transport, freight and logistics, maritime, aircraft crew, rig/platform and specific industries approved by the State Emergency Coordinator and Chief Health Officer.
Future review of border controls will be considered over the course of the next month.

I know this decision will be unpopular for many people as holiday plans and family gatherings will have been disrupted. For that I am very sorry. I understand that many people have planned around this date, and it is important we now provide people with a pathway to reconnect with families, on compassionate grounds, in a safe manner.

WA will be taking on more risk as many people enter under compassionate grounds from 5 February. But if we proceeded with the original plan, we would be deliberately seeding thousands of COVID-19 cases into WA, at this point in time that is not what I’m going to do."

Commentary
The National Cabinet made a commitment last year to reopen the country and drop all the interstate 'border' restrictions by 5 February 2022. This was part of the government's commitment to end the state of emergency and 'live with Covid.' Of course, there was one notable hold-out to this commitment - the secessionist WA Premier Mark McGowan. Since the beginning of the crisis, McGowan has cut WA off from the rest of the country and refused to adhere to any dates or commitments. Imagine my surprise when McGowan announced an emergency press conference at 7.30pm - prime news time - on Thursday 20th January 2022. What could he want to tell us? Looking anxious and with a visible tremor in his hands - which he tried to hide behind the lectern - the Good Premier announced he was keeping WA in lockdown from interstate and international travelers because of omicron. Surprise! Not.

Mark then proceeded to lie about the omicron and push hard on booster shots, which was the obvious motive for the extended lockdown. Everything he said about omicron and booster efficiency was a bare faced lie (I will expand more later). Interestingly, he mentioned that there was a crisis management group advising the government on this matter. Who is this group? What financial interests do they represent? This is certainly something for a Freedom of Information request.

What advice did this group give? Like all advice on the Covid response, the government refuses to disclose any details. Another Freedom of Information request I think.

I will provide more research and evidence against Mark McGowan's lies, but here are some quick links:
Perhaps Mark and his advisors could have read some of these instead of Pfizer and Moderna press releases?
The declining lethality of omicron: https://regenexx.com/blog/new-cdc-data-on-omicron-says-it-all-91-less-lethal/
Omicron as the end of the pandemic: https://www.novinite.com/articles/213129/Virologist%3A+Omicron+is+the+End+of+the+Pandemic
Boosters are NOT effective against omicron: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-19/mrna-boosters-don-t-block-omicron-south-african-study-shows
Repeated boosters are not a long-term strategy: https://bnanews102.bna.com/coronavirus/repeat-booster-shots-spur-europe-warning-on-immune-system-risks
PCR tests are ineffective/flawed: https://principia-scientific.com/who-finally-admits-covid19-pcr-test-has-a-problem/
WHO warns against vaccination of children without more data: https://www.who.int/news/item/24-11-2021-interim-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-for-children-and-adolescents