Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In this difficult and challenging year, as my friends in Melbourne endure the hardest of winters and my friends in Sydney are advised daily of a list of places whose visitors must get tested and self-isolate, our lives, for most in Western Australia, are close to normal. They are close to normal because our state government—Mark McGowan's government—took early and decisive action to protect the people of WA and close our borders. They closed our borders against the wishes of the Morrison government.

In fact, the Morrison government joined forces with Clive Palmer in a legal action to force Western Australia's borders open. Joining forces with Clive Palmer—it's a phrase that never should be used about any government. Clive Palmer is a hypocrite, a narcissist, an egomaniac and a threat to our nation's democracy. He is a shifty businessman who lists litigation as a hobby. Clive Palmer also recently dismissed the coronavirus as a media beat-up. This is a man facing charges for fraud and dishonest use of his position as a company director. He has been accused by ASIC of illegally funnelling millions of dollars into his 2013 election campaign—charges that carry a five-year prison term. This is the man that the Morrison government and the Attorney-General, Christian Porter—himself a Western Australian—threw the entire weight of the Commonwealth legal resources behind. Then, only after the damage had been done, the Commonwealth tried to back out and wash its hands of the affair. But this week's judgement in the Federal Court confirms that this government's support in the Clive Palmer case remains on the record, just as this government's opposition to border closures remains on the record and just as the court confirmed that the border closures have saved lives and kept the state safe.

This week, again in the Senate, we've seen senior WA minister Minister Mathias Cormann talking about open borders and talking about hotspot management. This was right here in the Senate. If hotspot management is enough and border closures are unnecessary, why did the Liberal Premier of New South Wales close the borders to the people of Victoria? It was because you cannot control a pandemic if you don't control the people that bring it in.

We've heard a lot from this government about the hardship of border closures. They do cause hardship—it's true. But there would be a lot less hardship, a lot less difficulty for border communities and a lot less distress for people trying to work out how to get back to their homes, their jobs, their families and their loved ones if we had a consistent plan for a national system and if the Commonwealth government had stepped up and supported states and territories in putting a system in place right from the beginning, as was necessary. Instead, it was doing everything it could to denigrate the leaders who took that hard but necessary step. This government has done everything in its power to destroy those life-saving protective measures. Those opposite—the government—might want to forget that they linked arms with Australia's shonkiest businessman in a full-throated attack on Western Australia, but I can tell you: the people of Western Australia will not forget.