Hastie goes back to war for Peel.
Former SAS soldier Andrew Hastie is drawing the battle lines around his electorate of Mandurah, demanding further restrictions to keep all outsiders away.
The WA MP and member of the powerful Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security yesterday took up a new war cry; “protect Mandurah at all costs”.
Despite the WA Government announcing this week new intrastate travel restrictions, which come into force at midnight Tuesday, the protections for Mandurah was not enough according to Hastie.
“We are gravely concerned that the impending travel restrictions will not legally limit non-essential visitors from Perth who don’t have a residential property coming to Mandurah for recreation or to holiday over Easter,” he said.
“At present, there are no protections or restrictions in place for our community from people coming to Mandurah for holidays and recreation. The public messaging that Perth and Peel are included as one region may give rise to the belief that people can freely travel to Mandurah for non-essential purposes which puts our community and a greater and unacceptable risk.”
The call comes after the iconic Mandurah Crabfest – which draws up to 100,000 people a year – was cancelled earlier this month.
Per capita, Mandurah and the greater Peel Region has one of the oldest per-capita populations in WA, who would be particularly at risk to COVID-19.
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The Prime Minister on Sunday night announced new “strong advice” urging everyone over 70, and those over 60 with chronic health conditions, to start completely self-isolating at home.
But these and the State Government measures did not do enough to protect the Mandurah Community, Mr Hastie said.
“Premier we urge you to implement further restrictions and penalties to ease all non-essential travel between Mandurah and Perth,” he said in an open letter.
“Please support this proposal, protect our community and legally restrict visitors who don’t have a residential property here or maybe visiting for non-essential purposes.”
