Covid-19: State and Territory Border Closures

The majority voted in favour of disagreeing with a motion to suspend the usual procedural rules - known as standing orders - to let a vote happen.

Motion text

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Brand from moving the following motion immediately:

That the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) today, the Federal Court found the Western Australian border closures were an 'effective' measure to combat COVID-19 entering the state;

(b) the Commonwealth, led by the Attorney-General who himself is a Western Australian, intervened in support of billionaire Clive Palmer's attempts to force open the borders against the will of the Western Australian people;

(c) the Commonwealth's subsequent withdrawal from the case prejudiced the Western Australian position, according to a Federal Court judge, and cost taxpayers unknown thousands of wasted dollars in legal fees;

(d) the Prime Minister and Attorney-General put the interests of a billionaire who is trying to bankrupt the state of Western Australia over the health of Western Australians; and

(e) the people of Western Australia will not forget this betrayal, and deserve an apology from the Attorney-General, the Prime Minister, and the Morrison Government; and

(2) therefore, calls on the Attorney-General to attend the House immediately and be given leave to make a ministerial statement explaining his government's actions.