Mark McGowan has taken another shot at his New South Wales counterpart, alleging the state is not following the national cabinet’s plan for opening up the country.
The outspoken Western Australia premier says Gladys Berejiklian’s easing of restrictions across Sydney is ‘outside the national plan’ and that NSW is ‘going alone’ as it powers towards 70 per cent double dose vaccination.
‘I note New South Wales is going to some easing of restrictions at 70 per cent. I just want to make the point that that is not in accordance with the national plan agreed to by all the states,’ Mr McGowan said.
‘I don’t think the Sydney press gallery understands this, that is not in accordance with the national plan, as agreed to and announced by all the states.’
Mark McGowan has taken another shot at his New South Wales counterpart, alleging the state is not following the national cabinet’s plan for opening up the country (Pictured: Sydneysiders enjoying the sun at the beach in Double Bay on Sunday)
The outspoken Western Australia premier says Gladys Berejiklian’s easing of restrictions across Sydney is ‘outside the national plan’ and that NSW is ‘going alone’
Mr McGowan singled out NSW for easing a number of restrictions across the state, including allowing people from different households to gather outdoors if they’re all double vaccinated (pictured, picnics in Sydney on Sunday as part of a gradual easing of restrictions)
Millions of people trapped in a soul-crushing ultra-hard lockdown across western Sydney’s Covid hotspots will be freed as the 12 LGAs of concern will enjoy the same easing of restrictions as the rest of NSW.
Locals were locked inside their council area unless they were an authorised worker with a permit, subject to a 9pm to 5am curfew, only allowed out for one hour a day for exercise.
From Monday these restrictions will disappear and they will be under the same lockdown conditions as the rest of Sydney.
Premier Berejiklian felt more comfortable removing the east-west divide with a dramatic fall in new cases to just 1,083.
However, the state also recorded 13 deaths, marking the deadliest day of the pandemic.
Mr McGowan singled out NSW for easing a number of restrictions across the state, including allowing people from different households to gather outdoors if they’re all double vaccinated.
Pictures of Sydneysiders enjoying beaches last weekend enraged the WA premier, with Mr McGowan singling out people at Bondi and Coogee for flocking to the ocean despite more than 1,000 daily cases still being recorded.
‘The reason I say that is the agreement was when states got to 70 per cent two dose vaccination, when a single state got there, there had to be a majority of the states got there as well before they did anything,’ he said Sunday.
‘If they’re going alone, that is outside the national plan.’
Pictures of Sydneysiders enjoying beaches last weekend enraged the WA premier, with Mr McGowan singling out people at Bondi and Coogee for flocking to the ocean despite more than 1,000 daily cases still being recorded (pictured, Sydneysiders enjoying the sun on Sunday)
Sydneysiders flocked to Centennial Park on the weekend to have picnics with members of other households after an easing of restrictions
He also took a shot at Scott Morrison and the federal government for criticising WA for not opening borders to other states including NSW when they reach 80 per cent jabs.
Mr McGowan says the figure is not good enough and they want to see cases low or they risk seeing the Delta variant enter.
‘What is increasingly becoming the case, if New South Wales is doing that, the national plan needs to be flexible and take account of individual state circumstances,’ he said.
‘So in our case, obviously we don’t have COVID and we don’t want COVID. We want to get to high levels of vaccination – very high – before such time as we open borders to New South Wales and Victoria, or overseas.
‘If there’s going to be flexibility for New South Wales, there needs to be flexibility for other states as well.’
Western Australia and Queensland are the states with the lowest rates of vaccination in Australia, with 41.8 per cent and 41.7 per cent fully vaccinated.
When asked about those numbers, Mr McGowan reiterated his desire for closed borders by saying he would ‘fully understand’ if NSW didn’t want WA residents entering despite low numbers of vaccines.
‘I would hope they would fully understand that we don’t want to deliberately infect ourselves before such time as we have very, very high levels of explanation,’ he said.
Sydney is targeting a date of October 18 to see the city out of lockdown after entering the stay-at-home orders on June 25 (pictured, picnics in Sydney on Sunday)