If 2020 illustrated anything, it’s that there are far worse places than Western Australia to be trapped in. Sure, WA isn’t as fancy pants as places in the east but our beaches, food and weather are magnificent and you can still get to most places inside half an hour. In the Covid-19 context, our relative isolation overlaid with a blunt-force border policy has meant that it was almost as difficult for the virus to get in as it was for the populace to get out.  

But I always had this niggle.  

That despite such a stringent border policy, we were otherwise bare-arsed insofar as preparedness for an outbreak was concerned. Did we have a COVID response strategy to complement the hard border? What was the plan if there was an outbreak? Were our hospitals ready? 

The Australia Medical Association and Australian Nurses Federation have both questioned the McGowan government’s ability to...