Government should trust the community with the truth

7th February 2022

It is perhaps a brave soul that dares to criticise the McGowan Government over their handling of COVID given his popularity, but in recent weeks more courage has been on display from leaders in this state, including the West Australian newspaper.

Most of us who do raise concerns are happy to credit the Government for its management of COVID in 2020 and 2021, including me, but there has been a change in the way the Premier is operating.

For two years it has been all about keeping COVID out of Western Australia, and the Government can claim success until now.

But now the Premier has had to acknowledge that it is here, and he has even admitted that WA has no chance of eliminating its Omicron wave as it did previous outbreaks.

So, the Government’s agenda has changed from excluding COVID to minimising and living with it.

But in doing so they are keeping the plan for transition a secret and refusing to share the detail with the public or the businesses and industries that are forced to implement it.

Both the Premier and Health Minister have repeatedly refused to tell us what the transition plan is, or tell us what level of “high caseload” will trigger it. 

In Monday’s West Australian the Premier is quoted by journalist Peter Law as saying “Our high case load settings are there and ready to be introduced, for when the time is right. I think that will happen very soon.”

So the modelling is done, and the triggers are prepared, but the Premier will keep them secret. He will even keep secret the date – perhaps today – that he will give us the next tidbit of information.

Does the Premier think that we the community can’t be trusted with that information?

Or does he simply enjoy having us all on tenterhooks waiting for his next pronouncement as he trickles information out as he likes. 

The McGowan Government has stopped doing the hard work on control of COVID and handed the burden over to businesses and industry across our state.

Vaccine mandates were put in place by the Premier months ago, but it is up to business and industry to enforce them (or refuse to in some cases).

Hundreds of thousands of business owners will now need someone checking the vaccination status of people entering their premises, all of which takes resources and comes at a cost.

As of the 1st of February, most businesses are also required to exclude employees who are unvaccinated.

However as has already been shown, the Government is not policing this rule properly either.

In some cases, unvaccinated workers are leaving  businesses that are obeying the law and finding work with businesses that are not enforcing the vaccine mandate.

And once again the Government is not protecting the businesses that are doing the right thing.

There are 59 staff in the Health Department who are responsible for business compliance, but there isn’t any noticeable action.

Waiting for complaints is a nonsense because it is relying on one business dobbing on another. 

The greatest issue faced by WA business however is the lack of clarity and consistency from the Government. 

We should have had a proper plan for transition released already so business had certainty on the requirements they have to face, but the Premier is yet to deliver one.

I’m sure the Premier likes being able to change the rules whenever he likes; it must make him feel immensely powerful but it is toxic to business management.

There is now no proposed date for opening the state and no timetable for the Premier’s promised and much needed “roadmap” of rules. 

The Government has perhaps given itself more time to get the health system ready, but it has had two years to get it prepared and failed. It’s hard to see that changing.

Mr McGowan originally committed to deliver his “road map” by the 5th of February, and even though the opening has been scrapped, the plan for business should be released immediately.

And proper state compliance should be put in place by then as well.

The Government shouldn’t throw business under the bus by pushing all the costs and problems of compliance onto them, but that appears to be the only consistent and clear agenda I can see.