Home

Coronavirus crisis: WA Premier Mark Premier slams ‘ungrateful’ quarantined hotel guests for throwing food

Peter De KruijffThe West Australian
VideoPremier Mark McGowan is urging Australian Border Force and the Federal Government to get the Artania ship on its way to Germany

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the Artania needs to get out of Australia as soon as possible after the crew asked to remain in Fremantle for two more weeks.

“I’m very disappointed and I’d urge the Federal Border Force and Australian Government to take steps to get the ship away,” he said.

“Sydney has six or nine ships sitting off its coast … they have a much bigger problem than we do.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

“I don’t want to see the Artania sit there and attract ships from somewhere else.”

The Premier agreed that sending the ship to Christmas Island for two weeks of quarantine could be an option.

Mr McGowan said while it could be a possibility for the Federal Government to take over the ship and physically steer it out of the port, the problem could be the crew could just bring it back again.

VideoPremier Mark McGowan is urging the Liberal Party to support the legislation going through the parliament to assist in the fight against COVID-19

“It has to go back to Germany, I suspect most of the crew want to go back to Germany,” he said.

Other than the more than 400 crew still on the Artania there are 12 passengers who did not leave.

Mr McGowan said he was unaware they had remained on board until recently.

“They have various reasons for wanting to stay on board,” he said.

“If they stay on board and want to sail with the ship I’m fine with that.”

Mr McGowan said reports of Vasco da Gama passengers quarantined in hotels throwing their food into the lobby was disgusting.

“It’s insensitive, ungrateful, inappropriate and frankly pretty disgusting and I just urge them to act like good Australians and recognise a lot of people are doing it a lot tougher than they are,” he said.

The Premier also welcomed a $160 million contribution from the Minderoo Foundation.

“If Minderoo is doing that, we welcome every bit of support from every West Australian whether you are a billionaire or a pensioner,” he said.

VideoPremier Mark McGowan is urging local governments not to stand down staff but rather redeploy them into other jobs

Mr McGowan has urged local governments not to stand down staff after being advised some councils were taking such a measure.

“Local governments need to do their bit,” he said.

“I also urge local governments not to stand down staff.

“People’s roles are not the same as they were redeploy staff.

“We need people employed and we need jobs and we need people delivering outcomes into the community.”

The West Australian understands most local governments are not currently eligible for JobKeeper payments as they have already collected most of their income for the financial year.

More to come.

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails