Coronavirus crisis: Premier Mark McGowan says WA is being punished for helping doing the right thing by NSW

Peter LawThe West Australian
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VideoPremier Mark McGowan says WA would wait until more than 80% of the population is vaccinated before setting a date to reopen the state to the rest of the country

Mark McGowan is calling on the Federal Government to give WA its “rightful share” of Pfizer vaccines, saying it is unfair that COVID-free States “are being punished for doing the right thing”.

Commonwealth distribution of Pfizer has seen “huge shifts in favour” of NSW over other States, according to the ABC’s 7.30, which reported WA had missed out on 114,000 doses on a per capita basis.

The ABC reported that NSW last month received 45 per cent of the national Pfizer allocation through primary care, mostly via GPs.

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Mr McGowan said he had supported NSW receiving extra vaccine supplies, but the locked down State had now received about one million extra Pfizer doses above its per capita share and there should now be a “boost” for WA.

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“It’s now time for a catch up for the States that provided that additional support to New South Wales. We now need to be given our catch up supplies, in particular of Pfizer,” the Premier said.

“We can’t have a situation where some States are punished for doing the right thing for New South Wales.

“We can’t have a situation where you are penalised when you give your doses to New South Wales and you don't get a proper catch up.

Camera IconA man receives the Pfizer jab. Credit: Bob Edme/AP

“We have provided, in the course of the last couple of months, 260,000 in N95 masks to New South Wales. We have medical teams in western New South Wales working on the outbreak there to vaccinate.

“All our contact traces, 50 or so, work every day contact tracing for New South Wales and we kept all of our industries open, providing all the income the Commonwealth Government pours into New South Wales.

“We’ve done our bit, we’d like our share of Pfizer and now in Western Australia. We want to have a boost in our supply of Pfizer to make up for what we provided to New South Wales willingly.

“It’s incumbent now on the Commonwealth Government to make sure they provide that boost back to States like Western Australia and South Australia and Queensland.”

WA has reached a first dose vaccination rate of 55.3 per cent, with 35.4 per cent of the State’s eligible population fully vaccinated. By comparison, 74.1 per cent of over 16s in NSW have received their first dose and 41 per cent are double jabbed.

Mr McGowan again repeated the border with COVID infected States would only come down about eight weeks after a vaccination rate of between 80 and 90 per cent was reached, but stopped short of confirming this meant a February reopening was on the cards.

He dodged questions about the Prime Minister’s decision to reunite with his family for Father’s Day and declined to criticise the AFL’s decision not to hold a traditional grand final parade in Perth CBD.

7NEWS reported the parade would be replaced with a free ticketed event in an enclosed location due to terrorism fears held by the AFL.

“Well, it's up to the AFL. Look, I'm not gonna criticise, they're trying to put on a grand final and, you know, in Perth, on the other side of the country at short notice, with everything that goes with that,” Mr McGowan said.

“Logistically, no doubt that's a very big task, I'm not going to criticise them but the opportunity is there if they'd like to do it.”

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