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Does WA not want any fresh produce?
W
hen new WA Health Orders came into place late November the WA border was described as chaotic, a debacle and many were flummoxed and puzzled at the situation. The new Health Orders said that ‘all’ drivers who have travelled through a COVID medium to high risk areas must front at the WA border with a negative PCR test within the last 72 hours. So why was there chaos? As you know, dozens of truck drivers upon arriving at the WA border were forced to detour 1000 kms for PCR tests. At the northern WA border, drivers arriving in Kununurra were sent back 500 kms to Katherine which had become a COVID hotspot. Further south at the Eucla crossing, drivers were forced to head back 490km to Ceduna. The questions being asked by industry was, “Where are we supposed to get tested in order comply on the way? The two obvious Testing Centres that capture most transport into WA are at Broken Hill and Port Augusta and these were closed after hours, as many are and there was nothing at the WA border. Does our Government not understand
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WATM • January/February 2022
that the transport industry works 24/7? These are the questions we want to ask WA Health. Surely, if a Government Department introduces new rules that affect transport into the state, any state – they
The two obvious Testing Centres that capture most transport into WA are at Broken Hill and Port Augusta and these were closed after hours, as many are and there was nothing at the WA border
would also think about what is needed to facilitate that so the transport industry can comply. Or as one man said, “Do they not want fresh produce in Perth?” That opens new questions…
So whose responsibility is having testing facilities available to essential industries such as transport? Surely transport into the state is important enough to throw some tax payers money at to ensure there are no hold ups? Or is the transport industry expected to work around a lack of facilities or… are the other states expected to pay… Were they even contacted? We spoke to CEO of Western Roads Federation Cam Dumesny who is good at foreseeing these situations and find that in late August 2020 he made a call for federal backing for 24/7 testing centres for truck drivers at Port Augusta and Katherine, which he believed would capture half of Australia at the two major freight choke points. When asked how that was going, he said, “All indications from other states that it made sense to do it and the next step was getting the WA Government on board. I contacted the Premier late October and have still not heard back. “The real problems lie with WA Health. The treatment of truck drivers is appalling. WA has got to pick up its game and start treating our truckies with some basic respect,” Cam finishes.
