❓ Dr. Honey requests an independent review of the state's COVID-19 response. The Premier deflects, questioning the timing and criticising the opposition's handling of the pandemic elsewhere.
AnsweredQoN 257Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CORONAVIRUS — RESPONSE REVIEW
257. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
I
have a supplementary question. My question was very straightforward. Will the
Premier undertake an independent and transparent review of the state's
response to the COVID pandemic?
257. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
I
have a supplementary question. My question was very straightforward. Will the
Premier undertake an independent and transparent review of the state's
response to the COVID pandemic?
AnswerView source ↗
I am not exactly sure that the
Auditor General recommended that. I think there might have been some commentary
that these things should be analysed. As I said, I am not afraid of or averse
at all to any sort of inquiry into these matters
at some point in time—I would not trust the Leader of the Liberal Party
to undertake the inquiry or his friend Clive Palmer—perhaps when
this matter is resolved. Bear in mind that we had 12 000 cases today, we have
about 280 people in hospital and we still have some light touch restrictions in
place. It would be inappropriate to hold an inquiry while it is still going on.
Would the member not understand that? I would have thought that is obvious to people. I get the feeling from my understanding of
what the Auditor General had to say that the member is verballing her. I do not have anything to hide in relation to
this. The member seems to think that we do. He thinks that we have somehow handled things badly. His Tory party
acolyte in Britain wanders around the streets with his hair everywhere with little dogs. His management of the pandemic resulted in hundreds of
thousands of people dying. Is that the approach that the member wished we had
adopted? If we look at America and some of his acolytes and fellow travellers
over there, we see that some of those states, because of their approach to
this, had tens of thousands, if not hundreds
of thousands, of cases, and I think over a million people have died in the
United States. In other parts of the world that do not have our health
system and do not have our wealth, millions of people have died. In Western Australia,
all of that has been avoided and we have had the most stunningly successful
outcomes. If you want to keep criticising, that can be your approach to this
matter. I am happy to keep defending because I am proud of what we have
achieved.
Auditor General recommended that. I think there might have been some commentary
that these things should be analysed. As I said, I am not afraid of or averse
at all to any sort of inquiry into these matters
at some point in time—I would not trust the Leader of the Liberal Party
to undertake the inquiry or his friend Clive Palmer—perhaps when
this matter is resolved. Bear in mind that we had 12 000 cases today, we have
about 280 people in hospital and we still have some light touch restrictions in
place. It would be inappropriate to hold an inquiry while it is still going on.
Would the member not understand that? I would have thought that is obvious to people. I get the feeling from my understanding of
what the Auditor General had to say that the member is verballing her. I do not have anything to hide in relation to
this. The member seems to think that we do. He thinks that we have somehow handled things badly. His Tory party
acolyte in Britain wanders around the streets with his hair everywhere with little dogs. His management of the pandemic resulted in hundreds of
thousands of people dying. Is that the approach that the member wished we had
adopted? If we look at America and some of his acolytes and fellow travellers
over there, we see that some of those states, because of their approach to
this, had tens of thousands, if not hundreds
of thousands, of cases, and I think over a million people have died in the
United States. In other parts of the world that do not have our health
system and do not have our wealth, millions of people have died. In Western Australia,
all of that has been avoided and we have had the most stunningly successful
outcomes. If you want to keep criticising, that can be your approach to this
matter. I am happy to keep defending because I am proud of what we have
achieved.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.