The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Australian states free of COVID resist opening their borders
By TRISTAN LAVALETTE and ROD McGUIRK PERTH, Australia©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
26 Comments
Login to comment
jiji Xx
with the exception of sports stars and officials of course, who seem to jet about the planet pretty-much as usual.... a new branch of the elite....
Ego Sum Lux Mundi
Always said WA should be an independent country.
Alexandre T. Ishii
Freedom with prevention is a best word to liberty.
SteveinJapan
Australia will be in the ridiculous situation where residents from Victoria and New South Wales will be able to travel to internationally to places such as the UK before they are able to reunite with family members in WA. What a backwards country...
2020hindsights
Bradley
Totally agree.
SteveinJapan
Try hiding your jealousy a little better. ;-)
SteveinJapan
Mate, I'm an Australian citizen, but absolutely delighted I don't live there.
WilliB
Bradley
That line became invalid long ago once we learned that the vaccinated can get and spread the infection like everyone else. Why keep bringing up this dud?
The numbers for the now edemic disease do not support wild claims like that.
1glenn
An area that is covid free today could be overwhelmed with covid in a few weeks. It just takes one carrier of the delta variant to spread the virus everywhere.
Bobo
Nobody gets in, people like me going for a funeral! Haven’t seen my family and probably won’t, They’re happy and full of themselves, live it up guys it will leak in eventually with those much needed goods that you are happy to let in on trucks. Anyways WA is hot crappy boring place, nothing to see there folks.
Bobo
Prison WA
marcels
I'm an Australian as well and glad as ever i dont live there have been in Japan since 2003 , bloody nanny states too many rules compliance border checks fines etc Japan has done a great job so far .
GBR48
This was always a likelihood when the federal government closed the borders and went for Covid zero. They have created their own mess.
The simple solution is to accept internal borders, open up half the country to international travel, and shift the financial burden of residual covid financial support on to states. Then wait until the inevitable happens and Delta hits 'paradise'.
Aussies have had so much time to get vaccinated and wasted it. Now they are trailing the developed world. Get a jab whilst the numbers are still low.
Peter14
And yet for months they have managed exactly that.
I also am Australian and I am absolutely delighted that I do live in Australia. I would not want to live anywhere else.
As for WA, if they want to keep borders closed until they choose to open up that is their choice. Their economy has been underwriting the rest of the nation and their state budget surplus of $5.6 billion dollars shows what they are doing is working very well indeed. A little less criticism from other states not doing as well would be more mature. Concentrate on vaccinating the population and worry less of the success in WA.
WA should also put more effort into vaccinations while they have the good fortune to be free of covid.
Concerned Citizen
In order to save the public from a disease whose average age of death in Australia is 84, they will have to permanently isolate the whole state.
May as well slice themselves off from the rest of the country and drift off.
wtfjapan
Always said WA should be an independent country.
unless they want to surrender all their mineral resources.
those resources are for all Australians not just WA,
wonder if they were so inclined for Independence if the bulk of WA resources were in say QLD.
wtfjapan
Japan has done a great job so far
compared to who
Australias deaths per capita from covid, is 45/million.
New Zealand 5/million
Japan 130/million
USA 2024/million. 50x that of Australia
Israel 784/million. 17x that of Australia
Sven Asai
Just only envying….I don’t see such a drag on economy in the East, when they only party, visit sports events or enjoy some nightlife there. Have fun and avoid the viral intruders… lol
2020hindsights
marcels
Unfortunately, the numbers don't agree:
Japan: 132 deaths / million
Australia: 42 deaths / million
Nonbirisama
It's true that governments in Australia are compelled to bubble wrap the population, but once 75-80% of the population are fully vaccinated, it's obvious they will open up. Opening up before then will just result in lockdowns and preventable deaths like the rest of the world
Strangerland
There have been three types of approaches to the pandemic from the world’s nations. On one end you have countries like America and Brazil who mostly went with little interference in business and tried to go on as normal. On the other hand you have countries like New Zealand and Australia who went with lockdowns and supporting business financially. Then you had countries who did some blend of those two styles.
Different people obviously have different ideas on which approach is best. But even if you disagree with the Australian approach, their Covid numbers speak to the efficacy of that approach. The question is not whether the approach was a good one - it clearly was - the question is whether it was worth the cost to achieve that goal.
I believe it was. That’s my opinion.