WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan labels mandatory vaccines for truck drivers “common sense”

WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan says it is “common sense” and “fairly sensible” for truck drivers to require be vaccinated before entering WA. Confusion and frustration played out at the WA-South Australia border last Monday as unvaccinated Eastern States truck drivers were sent packing by police. Four days later, two NSW truck drivers aged 23 and 29 tested positive for the virus after driving from virus-hit NSW via Victoria and South Australia. The men entered hotel quarantine after getting confirmation of their positive results and informing WA authorities last Friday. WA Health has tested 24 people who came into close or casual contact with the two men, with all returning negative results. The debacle has thrown up debate about whether truck drivers from virus-riddled New South Wales should be vaccinated prior to entering WA. Ms MacTiernan said she believed the idea had merit and it was “unreasonable” to think truck drivers could travel into WA without being vaccinated. “I think that is fairy sensible now,” she said. “If you are looking at the movement of people across borders without quarantine, I think it is unreasonable to think you could do that without vaccination. “I think that is a pretty common sense thing. “If you are working in an industry where you are moving across borders, it would strike most people that you should be vaccinated.” Ms MacTiernan said mandatory vaccination for interstate truck drivers was “under constant consideration” by the State Government, but no decision had been made. “We are always looking at what we need to do to move to the next stage and handling of this crisis,” she said. “I don’t think its at all unreasonable for people coming across jurisdictions like NSW. “You would absolutely expect people would take it upon themselves to be vaccinated. “What we are seeing, is increasingly employers are requiring that they have got an obligation to make their work practices as safe as possible.” The 29-year-old and 23-year-old truck drivers had very little contact with the general public, sleeping in their truck cabin after arriving at a warehouse in the Perth suburb of Kewdale in the early hours of Friday morning last week. On the way they stopped at the Yellowdine Roadhouse near Southern Cross, a service station in Norseman and at the Eucla WA-SA border checkpoint. Both men wore masks during their trip. Road transport heavyweights have called for better support for truckies in the wake of the COVID cases, with Western Roads chief executive Cam Dumesny saying WA needed better “layers of defence” as drivers struggled to get vaccinated due to irregular working hours and remote locations. Mr Dumesny called for rapid antigen testing at the border and for testing centres at Katherine and Port Augusta to be scaled up with Commonwealth funding. He also urged the Federal and State governments to offer an incentive to truck drivers who opted to do “trailer exchanges” at the border. WRF’s preference is that vaccination should be voluntary for drivers, with Mr Dumesny emphasising how much effort the industry had been putting into combating the spread of the virus. Queensland truck drivers caused a peak-hour nightmare by blocking a major QLD highway this week, protesting against mandatory vaccines, before heading to form a blockade in northern NSW. Dozens of truck drivers blocked the M1 southbound at Reedy Creek, on the Gold Coast, this morning, demanding mandatory coronavirus vaccines for essential workers be scrapped.