The Prime Minister has changed his tune about West Aussies after referring to them as ‘cave people’ during the hard border.
Hoping to rebuild his relationship with the west, Scott Morrison told Clairsy & Lisa he recognised what Premier Mark McGowan has achieved, supporting the state’s alternative path.
“WA has had a different path to the rest of the country, and we recognise that, particularly as time went on,” he said.
“We could see that emerging and we made some changes to how we were dealing with the West Australian situation, respecting the fact that it had a different path to follow and had supported that all the way.
Earlier in the chat he praised WA’s handling of the pandemic.
“WA’s success is similar to the country’s success,” he said.
“It was all about ensuring whether the hospitals could withstand the impacts of the virus – Australia has achieved that and Western Australia has achieved that.”
Mr Morrison said he estimates that 40,000 Australian lives have been saved due to the measures undertaken during the pandemic.
“If we had the same experience of countries just like us overseas, there would be 40,000 dead in Australia today as a result of the virus.”
“WA has had a different path to the rest of the country, and we recognise that, particularly as time went on.”
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In August 2021, Mr Morrison said WA’s lockdown approach ‘absurd’, likening it to characters in animated movie The Croods “wanting to stay in their cave”.
“Some wanted to stay in the cave and the young girl wanted to deal with the challenges of living in a different world,” he told Today Show host Karl Stefanovic at the time, adding that we “can’t stay in the cave”.
