WA’s border: Whatever Mark says goes (for most of us)
November 14, 2020
Early this morning, WA essentially opened its borders back up to most Australian states, transitioning from a hard border to a controlled interstate border.
As of 12:01am, travellers entering WA from states deemed ‘very low risk’ are no longer required to quarantine for 14 days. Those coming from NSW and Victoria, which are yet to go 28 days without any community transmission, are still required to quarantine.
With such a big change to the bubble that has kept West Aussies safe and living a relatively normal life for the past 6 months, we were keen to find out how locals felt about the call.
In collaboration with our partners at RewardingViews.com.au, we spoke to 628 West Aussies to see how they felt — and the majority, 65%, agree with the decision to transition away from the hard border, with 20% agreeing strongly.
This is quite a contrast to what we were seeing earlier in the pandemic, where the vast majority of our respondents were in support of McGowan’s decision to close the border down initially. It speaks to the rapidly shifting landscape out there, but also to how much West Aussies trust their leader and agree with almost every call he makes.
It seems he can’t do wrong in the eyes of the majority — even though 65% of our respondents also said they’re feeling more worried about a COVID-19 outbreak in WA as a result of the border change, with women feeling significantly more worried than men.
It also looks like we’re happy staying put in our relatively safe space — only 21% of our respondents overall say they’re likely or very likely to travel interstate within the next 3 months, even though they can do so to most states and come back home without having to quarantine. People with no children were the most likely to expect to travel interstate at 27%, compared to only 10% of families with young kids.
But with how fast things are moving, and how up in the air everything still is, who knows how long it’ll be before we see another shift. We’ll be sure to keep our finger on the pulse and check in regularly throughout the rest of the year — and beyond.
