So, after downloading, printing and reading through the full judgement in
Palmer v Western Australia (No4) today, several things are apparent from Justice Rangiah's judgement.
Firstly, and most importantly, it appears Justice Rangiah found essentially in favour of WA in as much as their "hard border" is the singular most effective way to prevent the importation and consequent spread of Covid-19 into WA. Other measures, he wrote, were not as effective as the border closure, even though it had limitations in providing exemptions for certain people. These comments appear to reinforce WA's stance that they will not remove their "hard border" to any state until there is zero community transmission, which the judgement defines as "two incubation periods" totalling 28 days. The reason for that is to prevent "Border hopping" ie NSW-NT-WA when NSW-WA is currently prohibited.
The hearing was conducted with the agreement of all parties as to whether the border restrictions were
currently justified (at the time of the hearings) - not whether they
were justified when implemented. Notably the hearings were conducted 27-31 July, almost smack in the middle of the Victorian outbreak, and it is notable reading through the judgement that that outbreak - and the flow on one in NSW attributed to it - appeared to heavily influence both the experts opinion and the Justice's thinking.
The judgement was
only concerned with the public health aspects of the case - there was no discussion able to consider the social, economic or constitutional aspects of it. That'll come later with Clive going to the High Court to continue his s.92 challenge, though I can foresee that being a bit harder now the Federal Court has found the Border Closures, essentially, justifiable.
The other notable thing from reading the judgement was it appeared - to me at least - to focus almost entirely on the absolute worst-case outcome should Covid-19 1. Be imported into WA and 2. be allowed to run rampant with community transmission. This is despite the judgement also finding WA has strong surveillance and testing systems, and has been successful in containing outbreaks in the past. (Pg. 67 [296]) which would appear more reasonable given what has gone on elsewhere, in NSW and Qld for example.
Food for thought should Clive lose his s.92 case and you want to go to WA anytime until a vaccine is found.......