Cartoon of the Week

Mark David

A conga line of #COVIDIOTS - Part 4

NSW Police, News, 16-19 August 2020:

Police in the Riverina region have issued two Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) in the past 24 hours for non-compliance with COVID-19 Public Health Orders.

As part of proactive compliance operations, officers from Riverina Police District attended a restaurant on Fernleigh Road, Mount Austin, just before 7pm on Saturday (15 August 2020).

After speaking with the 39-year-old male owner, officers conducted a walk-through and established that a COVID Safety Plan had not been completed.

Further, the owner, who was also the chef, claimed to be the designated COVID marshal.

The owner was informed he would receive a $5000 PIN for non-compliance with the Public Health Orders, which was issued yesterday (Tuesday 18 August 2020).

In a separate and unrelated incident, officers from Riverina Police District have been conducting inquiries into suspected non-compliance of self-isolation directions since late last month.

On Saturday 25 July 2020, local police were contacted after a 25-year-old woman, who had arrived in Wagga Wagga from Victoria on Thursday 23 July 2020 on a valid permit, was reportedly not self-isolating.

Police conducted a number of inquiries, including repeat compliance checks, during which it was established she had not been self-isolating.

Officers advised the woman she would receive a $1000 PIN for fail to comply with noticed direction in relation to s7/8/9 – COVID-19 and reminded she must complete the full self-isolation period.

The woman was issued with the PIN yesterday (Tuesday 18 August 2020).

Police continue to appeal to the community to report suspected breaches of any ministerial direction or behaviour which may impact on the health and safety of the community.

Anyone who has information regarding individuals or businesses in contravention of a COVID-19-related ministerial direction is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.

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Two people have been issued with Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) since the last update:

About 6pm on Sunday (16 August 2020), officers from Eastern Beaches Police Area Command responded to reports of a large gathering at Jack Vanny Memorial Park, Maroubra. Officers spoke with a 33-year-old man who was one of the organisers of the event, before the crowd was dispersed without incident. Following inquiries, the man was issued with a $1000 PIN yesterday (Monday 17 August 2020) for fail to comply with noticed direction in relation to s7/8/9 – COVID-19.

On Friday 14 August 2020, a 57-year-old man attended Bourke Hospital with possible COVID-19 symptoms. He was tested for the virus and directed to self-isolate at home. About 3.30pm yesterday (Monday 18 August 2020) the man was located at a friend’s house. Further inquiries revealed the man had attended a local shop the same morning. He was issued with a $1000 PIN for fail to comply with noticed direction.

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Two people have been charged and 19 Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) have been issued since the last COVID-19 update.

CHARGES INCLUDE:

About 12.30pm on Saturday (15 August 2020), police attended the Albury-Wodonga railway bridge and spoke with a 24-year-old man, from West Wodonga, was who was wanted in NSW on four outstanding warrants.

It’s alleged the man had crossed the border into NSW illegally, with officers also locating and seizing a set of knuckledusters when he was searched.

The man was taken to Albury Police Station where he was charged with the outstanding warrants, along with go onto running lines, resist police, possession of a prohibited weapon, and fail to comply with the Public Health Order.

He was refused bail appeared at Wagga Wagga Local Court yesterday (Sunday 16 August 2020), where he was formally refused bail to appear in Albury Local Court today (Monday 17 August 2020).

In another incident, about 4.20pm on Friday (14 August 2020), a 37-year-old man attended Eastwood Police Station for a meeting. While waiting, the man allegedly coughed directly towards two female officers, aged 30 and 33. He was arrested and taken to Ryde Police Station.

Police will further allege that while in custody the man damaged a station phone during a call.

He was charged with not comply with noticed direction re spitting/coughing – COVID-19, two counts of assault officer in execution of duty, two counts of intimidate police officer in execution of duty without actual bodily harm, and destroy or damage property.

The man was granted conditional bail and is due to appear in Burwood Local Court on Tuesday 25 August 2020.

In addition, 19 people and businesses were issued with PINs. PINS INCLUDE:

- About 12.30pm on Saturday, police were called after a light aircraft, which left Victoria, had landed at Deniliquin Airport. The 61-year-old male pilot did not have a valid permit to enter NSW. He was directed to return immediately to Victoria and was issued with an infringement notice.

- About 11.30am on Saturday, officers from Sydney City PAC were called to a unit on Hay Street, Haymarket, after reports of a party occurring inside. Officers attended and found a gathering in progress with approximately 30 people inside. Officers spoke to the 20-year-old female occupant who told police she booked the premises online. She was issued with a $1000 infringement for failure to comply with noticed direction.

- A man who organised a dance party on the North Coast of NSW last month has been issued an $1000 infringement for ‘Not Comply Noticed Direction’. Police allege the man held the unauthorised party on Saturday 4 July 2020 at Wilsons Creek Road, Wilsons Creek, which attracted an estimated crowd of 1000-1500 people. Following inquiries, the 50-year-old man was issued a PIN on Friday.

- About 10.20pm on Saturday 8 August 2020, officers from Murray River Police District visited a licensed premise on End Street, Deniliquin, where they saw patrons not practicing social distancing. Following inquiries, police issued the licensee – a 65-year-old woman – a $1000 fine on Friday.

- Another licensee of a hotel on Station Place, Wagga Wagga, was also fined $1000 on Saturday, after officers from Riverina Police District identified breaches, including patrons not practising social distancing and an out-of-date COVID safety plan, during a visit on Saturday 8 August 2020.

- On Friday evening, licensing officers from Murray River Police District conducting business inspections spoke with a 54-year-old man at a club in Mulwala, and a 58-year-old woman at a club in Barooga, who were both drinking alcohol and playing gaming machines. Both were from Victoria, with the man entering NSW with a working permit, and the woman entering NSW on a permit strictly stating she was only entering the state to provide care. The man and woman were each issued $1000 PINs.

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Victoria Police, Breaking News, 19 August 2020:

Moorabbin Highway Patrol members grabbed a man for excessive speed, drink driving and breaching Chief Health Officers restrictions in Brighton last night.

Police detected a white BMW sedan on Nepean Highway travelling at 138km/h in a 80km/h zone about 8.10pm.

Police spoke to the driver, a 43-year-old Beaumaris man, who underwent a preliminary breath test.

He was taken to a local station for an evidentiary test where he returned an alleged reading of 0.157%.

His car was impounded at a cost of $878.50 and his licence was immediately suspended for 12 months.

He is expected to be summonsed to appear at a Magistrates Court at a later date for traffic related offences.

The driver was also found to be in breach of the directions issued by the Chief Health Officer and issued a $1652 penalty notice.

The directions by the Chief Health Officer, under the State of Emergency declared in Victoria, have been enacted to help stop the spread of Coronavirus.

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Perspectives on the Qld-NSW border closure

Perspective One

Echo NetDaily, 18 August 2020:

Queensland is closed. Annastacia is showing us she knows how to deliver some serious borderline discipline. It’s a show of strength – perhaps, some might say, a borderline disorder. There’s a state election around the corner (31 October) and she’s not about to let a few hundred NSW cancer patients in need of treatment soften her public displays of tough love for her Queensland constituents.

There’s been endless stories of seriously ill people who have been severely affected by the sudden border closures and the quarantining requirements. I even heard the heartbreaking story of a very ill man who had received treatment at a Queensland hospital and was made to cross into NSW to meet his wife by foot. At a local doctors surgery as many as ten doctors can no longer attend. Is that a show of strength Ms Palaszczuk?

In the previous border closure earlier this year I knew of people who were able to get border passes for a day trip to IKEA. Just a few months ago we could print a pass and return home with a flat pack. Now we have to beg for chemo. That’s nuts. We don’t even have COVID here. In Northern NSW we’ve become refugees in our own country.

We are standing at the border knocking, ‘Hey Queensland, you’ve been coming down here every weekend for years now, clogging up our roads, swimming at our beaches, enjoying our kooky hippyesque charm… we don’t want to come in for a holiday, we would like to go to hospital.’

Until COVID, borders were something that only meant something in the State of Origin. Or if someone cut you off on the highway and had a Queensland numberplate you mused it was because of their statewide merging disorder. For over half the year they’re an hour behind us because of their silly reluctance to take on daylight savings. But now the Queensland border has been sealed shut. They’re sailing into the distance. Who knows how far behind they may be once the border reopens? Will we need passports to enter?

COVID has carved Australia into a quarantine pie, it has made us separate people. It has made Queenslanders distrustful of us. And here in NSW, it has made us suspicious of Victorians. Every time we see a VIC numberplate we hit down hard on the hand sanitiser. State premiers who previously seemed a tad irrelevant in the big game of politics have become the major players. They get to play Big Daddy or Big Mummy to keep their state safe. I’m not sure what’s happened to Scott Morrison – he appears to have gone to sleep. Every time I turn the telly on, it’s not Scotty’s face I see, it’s Daniel Andrews. And I have to admit I really feel for him. He has to bring the COVID-19 outbreak under control, otherwise the rest of Australia will blame Victoria for their financial ruin. He does look very tired.

The pandemic has ugly impacts. It has made us territorial. We are one country – at least we used to be. Our lockdown has sent us to our burrows – it has made us conspiratorial and suspicious. It is causing us to lose trust. When Annastacia created a travel bubble between Queensland and NSW, she cut Mullumbimby and Byron Bay out. I doubt that was an accident with the protractor in the planning department. ‘We ran out of arc’. It’s because people from Sydney come here. It’s because we’re perceived as loose – after all we’re famous for immunising with a turmeric poultice.

So, farewell Queensland. We’ll see you on the other side. Or perhaps, we won’t.

Perspective Two

Yes this border closure can be hard on individuals, families and communities.

For those living in the Northern Rivers region who need to access health services in southern Queensland and medical personnel who can no longer cross the border to work in our hospitals and clinics unless they leave their families and don't return until the border opens, it is more than hard.   

However, the Northern Rivers is part of a state, New South Wales, which allows its residents free movement within its own borders during this global pandemic.

This means that people can freely travel from local government areas where COVID-19 infection growth is active to areas where infection growth is low or where there are no known cases of the virus.

New South Wales has a premier who appears to be in thrall to a prime minister whose constant push to prematurely ease public health order restrictions put in place by the states destabilised the national response to the pandemic.

So here in New South Wales we remain one of only two states with a high cumulative number of confirmed of COVID-19 cases, a relatively high death toll and active community transmission of the virus.

Currently the other six states and territories are managing to keep infection rates very low.

Additionally, we have people travelling within our state who crossed into New South Wales from Victoria which is in the middle of an infection surge and, we are not sending them home. Because quite frankly the Berejiklian Government has no idea where these Victorian travellers are.

Even within our state trust in the 'experts' engaged by the NSW Dept. of Health has taken a battering - given the release of the Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess Report on 14 August 2020.

It is no wonder that the Queensland Government does not trust any assurances given by either Scott Morrison or Gladys Berejiklian that new cases of the virus are unlikely to cross the border if Anastasia Palaszczuk were to reopen Queensland to people from New South Wales right now.

When it docked in Sydney, NSW, cruise ship "Ruby Princess" & its more than 4,000 passengers and crew were primarily the responsibility of the federal Morrison Coalition Government - but almost no-one gets off unscathed in recently published NSW Commission of Inquiry report

"The human consequences of the scattering upon disembarkation have not yet played out. That is the salient feature of an uneliminated infectious pandemic." [Report: Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess, 14 August 2020]

Evidence of human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (as COVID-19) emerged almost immediately following the discovery of the virus in Wuhan, China in early January 2020.

On 6 January 2020 a traveler returning by air from China arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, carrying the COVID-19 viral infection.

As the global pandemic grew so did the number of factors to be considered when implementing infection controls.

By early February 2020 concerns were being raised around the world concerning the number of international cruise ships which potentially might be carrying infected passengers.

As of 19 March 2020 the number of confirmed COVID19 cases in the NSW totaled 307 and community concern was mounting.

The “Ruby Princess” - a foreign-owned cruise ship which has capacity for 3,080 passengers and 1,200 crew members - docked in Sydney to board and disembark passengers from its 24 February to 8 March 2020 and 8 March to 19 March 2020 voyages. 

When it entered Sydney Harbour it became a Commonwealth responsibility under federal statutes; Customs Act 1901, Migration Act 1958, Australian Border Force Act 2015 and Biosecurity Act 2015 (an act which in part addresses human biosecurity and whose provisions are administer by the federal departments of Health & Agriculture, Water and the Environment).

By 19 March it was suspected that a number of passengers and crew might possibly have contracted the highly virulent COVID-19 infection.

Five days before the ship's docking Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison had informed the general public that Border Force had implemented measures to screen incoming cruise ships for the coronavirus - "In specific cases where we have Australians on cruise ships then there will be some bespoke arrangements that will be put in place directly under the command of the Australian Border Force to ensure the relevant protections are put in place".

However, it seems that the "Ruby Princess" was exempt from some of Morrison's so-called "bespoke arrangements", in that it had permission to come into Sydney when as a safety measure it should have been refused permission until after 15 April 2020.  It was exempt because it had departed a port outside of Australian waters before midnight on 15 March 2020. 

So, despite the prime minister’s statement on the morning of 19 March 2020 at least 2,700 passengers – a mix of Australian nationals and overseas visitors - were allowed to disembark in Sydney without being screened for the virus.

This mass disembarkation was the direct result of the NSW Dept. of Health Expert Panel classifying the "Ruby Princess" as 'low risk', together with an ongoing failure of a federal department to fully perform its legislated biosecurity functions and, finally verbal permission being given by an unauthorised Border Force official for all passengers to leave the ship on that morning.

With Border Force refusing to release cruise passenger details to airlines, there was no way of tracking passengers once they had left the ship and so infected passengers spread out across the state, across Australia and then by air across the world as oveseas travellers returned home.

Ruby Princess passengers dispersed around the world in the days after it docked. Some of them later displayed coronavirus symptoms.(ABC News: Emma Machan) 

It has been calculated that at least 662 "Ruby Princess" passengers contracted COVID-19 and over time 26 of these died.

By the time the "Ruby Princess" sailed out of Sydney on 23 April 2020 it was thought to be responsible for about one in every ten existing COVID-19 cases in Australia.

An est. 183 crew members were also thought to have become infected.

On 15 April 2020 the NSW Berejiklian Government created a Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess.

The Morrison Government did not assist the Inquiry in that it refused to allow a federal bureaucrat to answer any summons received from the Inquiry.

Indeed a summons to a Commonwealth officer to attend and give evidence about the grant of pratique for the "Ruby Princess" resulted in steps being taken towards proceedings in the High Court of Australia.

The Inquiry was due to report the the NSW Governor and Premier by 14 August 2020.

Report: Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess, 14 August 2020, can be read and downloaded at:

https://www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/assets/dpc-nsw-gov-au/publications/The-Special-Commission-of-Inquiry-into-the-Ruby-Princess-Listing-1628/Report-of-the-Special-Commission-of-Inquiry-into-the-Ruby-Princess.pdf.

This report contains a litany of errors at federal, state and cruise ship operator level, as well as uncovering deficiencies in current legislation and regulations.

A conga line of #COVIDIOTS - Part 3

NSW Police, News, 12 August 2020:

• A 23-year-old man was issued a $1000 PIN by officers from Murray River Police District after attempting to enter NSW for the third time without a valid permit.

• A 65-year-old man was issued a $1000 PIN by officers from Barrier Police District after continuing through the Buronga border checkpoint despite being denied entry due to not having a valid permit.

• A 58-year-old man was issued a $1000 PIN by officers from Murray River Police District after entering NSW without a valid permit. The man was stopped on the Hume Highway at Woomargama for the purposes of a Random Breath Test yesterday (Tuesday 11 August 2020). When spoken to by officers, he produced a Victorian licence and an invalid NSW border entry permit. He was issued a $1000 PIN, directed to leave NSW and escorted back to the Victorian border.

A conga line of #COVIDIOTS - Part 2

NSW Police, Latest News, 5-7 August 2020:

Border checkpoint police arrest man trying to cross in stolen ute

A man has been charged after police at a border checkpoint at Albury discovered he was trying to cross into NSW driving a stolen ute.

NSW Police manning the checkpoint stopped the utility on the Hume Highway at Albury about 7am today (Wednesday 5 August 2020).

The 27-year-old driver was unable to produce permits or ID, and further checks revealed the ute had been reported stolen from a business in West Melbourne yesterday (Tuesday 4 August 2020).

The man was arrested and was taken to Albury Police Station where he was charged three offences

• Receive property stolen outside NSW

• Not comply with noticed direction – COVID-19, and,

• Drive conveyance taken without consent of owner.

The man, of no fixed address, appeared in Albury Local Court today, where he was refused bail to re-appear in the same court on Friday 11 September 2020.

Girl charged with spitting at police and two women issued PINs in latest alleged breaches of Public Health Orders

A teenager has been charged after allegedly spitting on police, and two people have been issued with Penalty Infringement Notices for alleged breaches of COVID-19 Public Health Orders in the past 24 hours.

In the first incident, about 2.30pm yesterday (Thursday 6 August 2020), police spoke with a 15-year-old girl at a shopping centre in Blacktown and ascertained she was in breach of her bail conditions.

As police arrested the girl, it is alleged she assaulted police by kicking and punching, as well as spitting in the face of an officer.

She was taken to Blacktown Police Station and charged with two counts of assault police in execution of duty, resist officer in execution of duty, and not comply noticed direction re spitting/coughing - COVID-19.

The teen was refused bail and is due to appear before a children’s court today (Friday 7 August 2020).

Meanwhile, on Saturday (1 August 2020), a 31-year-old woman was stopped at a border checkpoint in Albury and presented a permit allowing her entry to NSW, under the provision that she was to self-isolate for 14 days at a Nimbin address.

Subsequent checks revealed the woman was not staying at the address, and following inquiries, police found her yesterday (Thursday 6 August 2020) in a vehicle at Nabiac. She was issued with a $1000 PIN for not complying with a noticed direction and instructed to return to Victoria.

In an unrelated incident, just before 1pm yesterday (Thursday 6 August 2020), police were conducting a walk-through at a licensed premise in Albury, when they spoke with a 50-year-old woman who was playing a gaming machine.

The woman produced a Victorian licence and a permit allowing cross-border travel for work purposes only.

She was issued with a $1000 PIN and removed from the club, to return to Victoria.

Police continue to appeal to the community to report suspected breaches of any ministerial direction or behaviour which may impact on the health and safety of the community.

Qld Police, News, 5 August 2020:

Police take action after border breaches 

A man and woman in their 60s are among several people police will allege entered Queensland after falsely declaring they had not travelled to a COVID-19 hotspot.

Police detained the couple in Nanango yesterday after receiving information that they had allegedly travelled through the Goondiwindi police checkpoint with false declarations on July 27.

The 63-year-old man and 68-year-old woman were issued with notices to appear in the Richlands Magistrates Court on August 19 for failing to comply with the Queensland Border Direction and fraud.

They have been placed into mandatory hotel quarantine outside the South Burnett area.

In a separate matter, a 22-year-old Weipa man was issued with an infringement notice for failing to comply with the Queensland Border Direction after being intercepted in Cairns Airport yesterday.

Police will allege the man flew into Queensland from Canberra and failed to declare he had been in Sydney, a COVID-19 hotspot, on August 2. He was immediately placed into hotel quarantine.

Queensland’s border restrictions mean people who have been in a COVID-19 hotspot within the last 14 days will be turned away at the state’s border.

Queensland residents who have been in a COVID-19 hotspot can return home but will be required to quarantine in government provided accommodation at their expense.

The Queensland Police Service is committed to ensuring everyone complies with public health directions and will continue to enforce restrictions at the border.

Since July 10, 12 people have been issued with notices to appear in court while 24 people have been issued with infringement notices for providing false information on their border declaration pass…..

Realising he had been too clever by half, #ScottyFromMarketing withdraws from WA court case

In which Australian Prime Minister and MP for Cook Scott Morrison tries to pretend he was never involved in the decision to support Clive Palmer's attempts to force Western Australia to open its state borders during a surging global pandemic which has already seen over 20,000 Australians infected and nationally 266 people dead.

WAtoday, 7 August 2020:

Western Australia's Solicitor-General claims the Commonwealth’s eleventh-hour withdrawal from Clive Palmer's legal challenge to WA’s hard border has created "an egg that must now be unscrambled". 

During submissions in the Federal Court on Friday, Solicitor-General Joshua Thomson SC made an application for the July trial to be vacated and a new trial granted without the Commonwealth’s evidence. 

"It’s a most unusual situation where you have an intervention by somebody, in this case the Commonwealth, which in effect sends them to the field of battle, it goes in and has that battle and then seeks to withdraw from the field of battle," he said. 

"What you are left with is a mixed up trail of evidence." Mr Thomson himself is currently adhering to WA’s hard border policy, making his application via video-link from his home while in self-isolation. 

At one point during his submissions he received a phone call from police checking up on his quarantine and referred to the situation as like being in prison. 

Mr Palmer’s lawyer Peter Dunning argued the WA government "didn’t own" the witness evidence given by the Commonwealth in trial, and that it would be improper for the entire proceedings to fall over because one party had lost interest due to "political" pressures. 

"It is one thing for the Prime Minister to agree with another leader for political reasons to abandon something, that arm of government is perfectly entitled to be engaged by those considerations, but it is quite inappropriate for a Federal Court to do so," he said. 

"It doesn’t mean the proceedings collapse if there are still main parties interested in the outcome. 

"What brings proceedings to an end is if there ceases to be a genuine contest." 

Mr Dunning said the witnesses in the trial were the "court’s witnesses" and could be recalled or subpoenaed in a retrial by Mr Palmer if required. 

The Commonwealth intervened in Mr Palmer’s legal bid to have WA’s hard border torn down and in effect became a "co-plaintiff", with both parties claiming the state’s all-or-nothing approach to reopening was unconstitutional. 

During a four-day trial heard in the Federal Court in late July, the Commonwealth produced evidence from two public health experts, Professor Peter Collignon and Professor Tony Blakely, cross-examined other expert witnesses and submitted reports. 

WA enlisted its Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson and Associate Professor Kamalini Lokuge as its witnesses, while Mr Palmer relied on the evidence of Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake. 

Mr Thomson said that due to the nature of the combined expert witness evidence being heard throughout the trial, the entire proceedings ought to be disregarded as they disadvantaged the state. 

Commonwealth Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue QC said since the Commonwealth withdrew its interest the day after the trial, it was not appropriate it make any further submissions on whether or not the evidence it adduced be considered in the High Court other than to say it no longer relied on it. 

It follows comments made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Radio 6PR on Thursday that his government wished the legal action had never been brought in the first place. 

"I'm pleased we're out of it," he said. 

"We've got no issue with [the proceedings] being redone or restarted ... we don't have any objection to that." 

During the hearing, Judge Darryl Rangiah blasted Mr Donaghue after the Federal Court became aware of its withdrawal from the case through the media, with an application to the court not made for a further three days. 

"Was it more important to notify the media before this court?" he asked, arguing Friday’s case management hearing should have been listed for Monday given the urgent nature of the application. 

Premier Mark McGowan, in response to the hearing on Friday, said he would have preferred the Commonwealth had actively supported WA's application for a retrial. 

"The Commonwealth has withdrawn from the case but unfortunately did not support Western Australia's application to have the case struck out," he said. 

"With or without the support of the Commonwealth government, WA will keep fighting for what is our right and that is to protect the citizens of this state. We will continue our battle, in fact, our war with Clive Palmer." 

Following the four-day trial between Mr Palmer and the State of Western Australia in July, the Federal Court adjourned to determine the facts of the case. 

The matter is then due to go to the High Court for determination of whether or not they were constitutional, which is touted to occur from September.....
[my yellow highlighting]

BACKGROUND

The Australian, 3 August 2020, p.4:

Mining magnate Clive Palmer has “thanked” Scott Morrison for contributing to his court bid to dismantle Western Australia’s hard COVID-19 border and says the federal government has played its part in his case, despite the Prime Minister pulling his support. 

Mr Morrison wrote to West Australian Premier Mark McGowan at the weekend to end federal co-operation with a High Court bid to remove the hard ­border, saying he wanted to work with the Labor leader to reach a ­compromise. 

Federal officials have already testified on Mr Palmer’s case in front of the Federal Court last week, presenting facts to show there were alternatives to the border closure. 

Mr Palmer on Sunday said the federal contribution to the case would still help determine whether he won his fight to overturn the closure. 

“The important issue in this case is revealing the truth that the experts from the commonwealth and WA governments had to say in court,” Mr Palmer said. 

“In the coming weeks, the Federal Court will make their determination on the facts and all Australians will be better for that decision.” 

Mr Morrison’s move to withdraw backing for Mr Palmer’s bid came days after he said he had ­serious constitutional concerns about Mr McGowan’s internal border closure, which is hailed by the Premier as the key to WA’s success in eliminating COVID-19. 

Both WA and federal bureaucrats testified in front of the Federal Court to lay out the facts around the state’s border closure and the constitutional issues, ­before legal arguments started. 

University of Sydney law professor Anne Twomey said on ­Sunday Mr Morrison’s move was political and would not stop federal evidence playing a role in the ultimate decision on Mr Palmer’s bid. 

“The commonwealth has already contributed on the critical issue over whether these laws are reasonably necessary to protect public health … it’s already played its major role,” she said.

Townsville Bulletin, 3 August 2020:

The border closure to all states, regardless of their level of infection, is hugely popular in WA. 

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk criticised Mr Palmer for his legal challenge to state border closures, saying it could put at risk “all the hard work we have done”. 

“Honestly, these legal challenges are ridiculous during this time,” she said. 

“Everybody should respect that states have a job to do to protect their families and not go through the courts and do these legal challenges, putting everything at risk because that’s what will happen. It will put all the hard work that we have done at risk.”

Christian Porter and the Morrison Government threw everything but the kitchen sink at @MarkMcGowanMP and Western Australia in support of Clive Palmer’s border challenge.
Just look at this list. What will the Morrison Government do to fix the damage it has already done? pic.twitter.com/F3bTE0wAOF

— Mark Dreyfus (@markdreyfusQCMP) August 5, 2020