No More Emergency Powers Without Oversight
On 4 November 2022, Western Australia’s “State of Emergency” finally ended after 963 days.
For those of us who were counting, that was two years, seven months and 21 days.
It was a big win that Western Australians fought hard for.
Much harder than it needed to be.
In Parliament, I asked the questions that needed to be asked about the Government’s justification for the ongoing use of emergency powers.
Week after week I called on them to be transparent and accountable.
On 10 May 2022, I tabled a petition of 8318 signatures calling on the McGowan Government to make the health advice and modelling, used to justify each state of emergency declaration, publicly available. You can view my submission to the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs here.
After tabling the 1st petition, three astonishing events occurred.
Firstly, the Government told Parliament they have no intention of revealing the advice. You can read their response to my question on notice after a parliamentary hearing with WA Health here.
Secondly, on 22 June 2022, the Emergency Services Minister admitted in a parliamentary hearing that he has never once seen the advice from the Chief Health Officer.
Thirdly, the Premier, Deputy Premier and the Emergency Minister, have all been overseas, encouraging people to come to Western Australia, all the while extending the State of Emergency Declaration.
On 9 August 2022, I tabled one of the largest e-petitions on record. Over 10,000 West Aussie petitioners called on Premier McGowan to end the State of Emergency without further delay. No government should have been allowed such absolute free rein with “emergency powers” for so long.
Powers which Mr McGowan himself called “extreme” and “draconian”.
Finally, on 4 November 2022 we won.
But has Premier Mark McGowan truly finished using “emergency powers”?
Unfortunately, the Premier’s new Emergency Management Amendment (Temporary COVID-19 Provisions) Act 2022 – which replaced his “state of emergency” – doesn’t stop emergency declarations.
It just means the Police Commissioner has been given the power to activate a State of Emergency at the drop of a hat.
The Police Commissioner will even have the power to send a person to break into your car or home without a warrant. That person won’t even need to be a police officer!
There’s no basis for these powers, they make no sense.
If Mark McGowan is saying there is no longer a need for a State of Emergency, why is this Act needed?
Other States with far higher case numbers ended their emergency declarations much earlier. The State of Emergency in Victoria ended at 11.59pm on 15 December 2021.
What was the justification for our Premier holding onto ours for as long as he did?
We may never know.
While Mr McGowan has said the government is in the process of starting an independent review into the state's handling of the pandemic, how can we have any confidence there will be a genuine independent review when we receive this type of response from the Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson, to a petition asking for the health advice to be tabled?
Yes, there’s a 2-year sunset clause on the new Act, but will they extend it?
On 16 February 2023 I tabled this e-petition, signed by a large number of petitioners who;
Note that the McGowan Government have shifted the responsibility for “emergency powers” for the next two years from the Minister for Emergency Services to the Police Commissioner;
Are concerned that these shifted emergency powers include extraordinary measures such as “COVID-19 officers” breaking into and entering any place or vehicle without a warrant;
Request that the Police Commissioner undertake that he will not use these new discretionary powers and instead insist that if a true State of Emergency occurs that the Premier and his Ministers take personal responsibility for making a lawful declaration;
Call on the McGowan Government to give an unequivocal commitment that they will not seek to extend these new powers when they expire in 2024;
Urge Parliament to establish a committee, not controlled by the Government, that will review the use of emergency powers since they were first invoked in 2020 and monitor their use over the next two years.
This petition was referred to the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs for its consideration. You can read my joint submission here.
The Police Commissioner’s response to my joint submission was “no comment”.
Meanwhile, the (now former) Premier responded curtly:
The provisions referred to by the petition, within the Act, automatically expire two years following the commencement of the Act. This was outlined clearly by the government during the second reading speeches of the Bill and in subsequent parliamentary debate.
In light of this, I took the opportunity during the 2023/24 Budget Estimates hearings to question the Minister responsible for the State of Emergency Powers and the Commissioner for Police, whom the WA Labor Government have given extraordinary “emergency” powers to.
I won’t stop asking the questions that need to be asked until we get an unequivocal commitment that these emergency powers will not be extended when they expire next year.
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