Mark McGowan has been the Premier of Western Australia for five years, becoming – in no small part due to his handling of COVID – the most popular politician in Australia’s recorded history. But it has not been without personal cost or controversy. I spoke with him on Friday.
Fitz: OK, so to the rest of Australia, you are Mr Western Australia, weaned on the waters of the Swan River and surely raised on a diet of Kalgoorlie dust. But you and I both know you’re a Newcastle boy, born and bred. Can we presume you lean forward at State of Origin time and – when no one’s looking – let out a very quiet “Go NSW!”
WA will remain shut off to the rest of the world indefinitely after the Premier abandoned his February 5 reopening date.Credit:
MM: “I actually back Queensland! I went to university in Brisbane. But that’s more than 30 years ago and your interest in rugby league really does wane. Even though I played it as a boy, I’m far more interested in Aussie Rules. As to NSW, my mother and father and my brother still live in Coffs Harbour, so I love getting back there and seeing them, but it’s not home.
Fitz: But as a serious point, can you concede it is an odd political fate for one so high-born – a New South Welshman – to achieve a record-breaking personal approval of 88 per cent, and a similar percentage of ALP parliamentary representation, on the ticket of “Vote for me and I’ll lock out the poxy Easterners”?
MM: It is odd to be the Premier of Western Australia and be someone from somewhere else but, having said that, 50 per cent of the West Australian population was born overseas or interstate. And my strategy of dealing with COVID-19 was all about saving lives and saving jobs, which has demonstrably worked. So far, we’ve only had one person acquire the virus in WA and pass away. We’ve only had 12 days of lockdown since April last year.
Fitz: And yet, I must ask the question much of the rest of the country wants asked, in the manner they want it put: “When will you open the f—ing borders?”
MM: Well, on the date we set. February 5, we’ll be opening Western Australia for compassionate cases, specialist skills and so forth, and there’ll be a few thousand people come in, subject to quarantining. The border itself will open when a review says it’s a good idea. But obviously deliberately infecting ourselves with thousands of cases overnight now as other states have done would put huge pressure on us, whilst booster vaccination rates are relatively low.
Fitz: Does the flak you’ve received for changing the open-up date from February 5, despite saying that date was “locked in”, ever get to you?
MM: I said the border would open “barring a catastrophe or an emergency” – and that gets lost by the journalists. And, obviously when you have 50 people dying in NSW the other day, I actually regard that as an emergency. We can’t deliberately allow that to happen here without getting the rate of booster vaccination up.
Fitz: Are we in NSW really serving as the best bad example of what not to do?
MM: No. Countries all over the world have made a far worse mess, but NSW wasn’t cautious enough and the laissez-faire let-it-rip attitude is not the right attitude when you’re dealing with a virus that kills.
Fitz: Is it fair to say for all your success in keeping COVID out, you’re now in for a difficult stretch? You can’t be “WA the Hermit Kingdom” forever and it’s inevitable that when you do open you’ll be blamed for letting it in.
MM: That’s true. We’ve avoided almost all the terrible experiences of NSW and Victoria for the last two years, and it will be an unpleasant shock for people. But having said that, having a high rate of booster shots when it gets here in large numbers will save hundreds of lives and mean the impact of it on our broader community, particularly the economy, will be reduced.
Fitz: It seems like you want to take a leaf out of President Emmanuel Macron’s livre and make life tough for the unvaccinated, even requiring vaccine passports for punters visiting drive-thru bottle shops! Have you written off the anti-vaxxer vote and gone: “Cop this you bastards! Stay home, and see if we care!” ?
MM: It’s not about that, but it’s about trying to save their lives in spite of themselves. We must mandate much more aggressive measures than other states because we didn’t have outbreaks driving up vaccination levels. Yes, a lot of these people are very unhappy about it. I get multiple, multiple death threats. But, everything we’re doing is to protect them, their parents and their grandparents, to try to reduce the pressure on hospitals and to save their lives.
Fitz: Is it fair to say, however, that lockouts have weakened the Federation, that the days of I am, you are, we are Australian have somewhat descended to I’m safe, you’re from a leper state, and so hang you, Jack, I’m alright?
MM: I don’t agree with that. If we deliberately just allowed the virus to come into Western Australia all of that income for the Commonwealth – we produce nearly 60 per cent of the country’s exports and we are the strongest state financially per capita by light years – that goes to the other states would have been significantly reduced. We’re doing all we can to help the other states just by making sure that we remain economically strong and COVID-free, OK.
Fitz: Moving on, Premier, you have so much political capital – you could spray a can of Coke and get everyone on the Opposition bench, singular – you can pretty much do anything right now. You are a progressive. Is there no great progressive project you want to expend some of your political capital on?
MM: Well, we just passed the most progressive voluntary assisted dying laws in Australia, without some of the constraints that other states have had. And we’ll do some more around gun laws shortly.
Fitz: Yet three years ago, on behalf of Ausflag, I texted you a copy of that stunning flag proposal for WA to get rid of the Union Jack off your state flag. It came up last week and your mob rejected it. Why isn’t that a brilliant flag?
MM: Look, I’m a republican, like, you know, virtually everyone on my side. But the flag is not something that I’m focused on.
Fitz: Given your success at state level do you have any federal ambitions?
MM: Honestly, honestly, I don’t. And I’m very happy being the Premier and obviously being with the national cabinet arrangement you can be at the centre of decision-making without having to do the 10-hour trip to Canberra each week.
Fitz: When you were kind enough to launch my book on the Catalpa Rescue a couple of years ago at Rockingham, in your electorate, you told me that you might have another 10 years in you. How do you feel right now?
MM: (Pauses.) I think that was tongue in cheek. But look, it’s exhausting. All of this is so exhausting because you go through all this arguing every day about COVID and every time you do something to try and save lives or save jobs you get a whole bunch of people objecting because in some way it doesn’t suit their lives. But I’m five years into being Premier and I’m still going strong. So, my plan is to keep going for a while.
Fitz: Ok. Last question. Do you have any comment on the text by Gladys Berejiklian that the PM is “a horrible, horrible person” or the unknown cabinet minister that he is “a complete psycho”? Do you take a savage joy in such nastiness among your political opponents, or does it sadden you that it has come to this?
MM: Well, it is a very vicious Liberal Party fight. But I’m pretty sure that Gladys’s texts about me would be far worse. We had a lot of differences over vaccination policies and all that “gold standard” stuff. At the time I kept on saying to NSW, “You’ve got to take measures to try and eliminate the Delta outbreak”, which they ignored. And then it got away from them and then it got to Victoria and then it got to here and got to New Zealand. And by the way, we did eliminate Delta, and had a completely free life until recently.
Fitz: Thank you.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
A pig goes into the telegraph office, fills out a Send Telegraph form and gives it to the telegraph operator. The operator reads it and it says, “Oink oink oink oink oink oink oink oink.” The operator then tells the pig, “For the same price, you can have nine words in your message. Would you like to add another ‘oink’?” The pig, completely taken aback, looks at the man in disbelief and replies, “But then it wouldn’t make any sense!”
TWEET OF THE WEEK
“So now he can hold a hose?” Queensland Deputy Premier @StevenJMiles, on footage of the PM washing a customer’s hair in a hairdressing business.
WHAT THEY SAID
“From the Prime Minister’s point of view, if he’d sat there and Jen was with him, she’d be able to rattle off all the prices of all the things they buy.” Minister Stuart Robert on Radio National, trying to help, after the PM couldn’t cite the price of bread, the cost of a RAT, or the price per litre of petrol.
“There is not a situation in this world that I’ll get a vaccine. If I’m laying [sic] on my deathbed, and they tell me, ‘You have a kidney waiting on you if you get this shot,’ I’ll tell them, ’I’ll see you on the other side.” This week’s leading anti-vax nutter, Chad Carswell of North Carolina. For more than four years, Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. He recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirus vaccine.
“I’ve been provided with a text message exchange between the former NSW premier and a current Liberal cabinet minister. I’ve got them right here. In one she describes you as ‘a horrible, horrible person’, going on to say she did not trust you and you’re more concerned with politics than people. The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a ‘fraud’ and ‘a complete psycho’.” Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen to Scott Morrison this week.
“Well, I don’t know who you’re referring to or the basis of what you’ve put to me. But I obviously don’t agree with it, and I don’t think that is my record.” Scott Morrison, heavily blinking, in reply.
“I have no recollection of such messages. Let me reiterate my very strong support for Prime Minister Morrison and all he is doing for our nation during these very challenging times. I also strongly believe he is the best person to lead our nation for years to come.” Gladys Berejiklian, later in the week, trying to paper over the cracks. Counting her testimony, it is at least the 151st time, in recent months, that she has been unable to recall seemingly significant events.
“The locals, not just in Byron Bay, in lots of regional towns, resist extra housing being put in. It’s understandable people like looking over green rolling hills and the rural lifestyle, but they’re pulling up the ladder after them. They are saying ‘we got here first, and to newcomers, they’re saying screw you’.” The Centre For Independent Studies’ chief economist Peter Tulip about the lack of affordable housing in NSW rural areas.
Barty of Australia waves as she holds the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.Credit:AP
“It was pretty quiet, actually. I was pretty wrecked. I just had a couple of beers and I was in bed.” Ash Barty, asked what she did to celebrate winning the Australian Open.
“[Ben Roberts-Smith] then walked down and grabbed the Afghan male by the scruff of the shirt, picked him up, marched him a couple of metres forward [until] he was in front of Person 4. He then kicked him in the back of the legs behind the knees until he was kneeling down in front of Person 4. He pointed to the [Afghan man] … and said to Person 4, ‘Shoot him.’” Person 41, an SAS soldier, giving testimony on Wednesday in the defamation proceedings brought by VC holder Ben Roberts-Smith, against Channel Nine, about what he alleges happened on a mission in Afghanistan on Easter Sunday 2009.
“If you collect thousands of predictions, they can’t all be wrong, that would be impossible. By sheer necessity of random fluke, some would have to be correct. It just goes to show anyone can play this game.” Richard Saunders, chief investigator for Australian Skeptics Inc after its 20 year tracking study showed that of more than 3800 predictions made by 207 Australian psychics between 2000 and 2020, just 11 per cent were unambiguously correct – an accuracy rate worse than random guesses from a control group of non-psychics.
“We believe that any form of sexual immorality (including but not limited to adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts, bestiality, incest, paedophilia and pornography) is sinful and offensive to God and is destructive to human relationships and society.” Citipointe Christian College in Brisbane, has insisted that all parents of students sign contracts affirming that this is their belief too. So many levels of offence, I’ve had to put another man on to keep track.
“The survival of abuse culture is dependent on submissive smiles and self-defeating surrenders. It is dependent on hypocrisy. My past is only relevant to the extent that I have seen – in fact I have worn – the consequences of civility for the sake of civility.” Grace Tame on why she has no regrets whatsoever about openly grimacing around the Prime Minister on the final day of her reign as Australian of the Year.
“As a historian, for me, the important thing about that voyage are the journals that are produced, that record what’s actually going on at the time of the voyage. Finding rotten pieces of wood at the bottom of the harbour is not going to give me that kind of detailed insight into what went on in that voyage.” James Cook University history lecturer Claire Brennan on the importance, or otherwise, of whether the wreck discovered off Rhode Island is actually Captain Cook’s Endeavour.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
