INDEFINITE BORDER CLOSURE A FAILURE OF PLANNING

I am one of many people in WA who have been saying for weeks that the opening of the state borders should be delayed, but I am very disappointed that Premier Mark McGowan has not set a new, and definite, day for the re-opening. That is neither acceptable nor sustainable!
Businesses, individuals, sporting teams, the tourism industry, etc. need to be given clear indications on when life will get back to normal and when WA can expect thousands of interstate and overseas visitors. We cannot now wait for 90+ per cent of the WA population to have had their Booster shot before opening the borders. That is unworkable and unrealistic.

Omicron will come to WA in a huge tsunami when the borders open. We all know and all fear that, but it is a reality we will have to cope with unfortunately, because we can’t keep running away from the deadly virus. 

Even allowing for a first year of planning, the McGowan government should have thrown everything at upgrading our health system, latest starting with that early last year. We keep hearing about staff and bed shortages from a government that has billions of dollars available to prioritise that and make substantial changes and improvements.

The procrastination happened because we only got daily updates from Roger Cook and Mark McGowan, when they should have spent their time better on planning for a state of the art health system in WA. We can afford it now, so let’s not wait any longer!

Ad hoc, on the run governance is a sign of incompetence, lack of leadership, and the failure to do proper long term planning. Very disappointing!

Roel Loopers