Sometimes frankly, WA being so remote loses all grip on reality especially over vaccinations and COVID . You just need to watch the news programmes and they never real touch on international issues...and they are I am afraid inward looking full of own self importance (many), and don't know much about world reality (nor how to drive)!!

I've lived in Europe for many years and while I have been here for two years now (my wife wanted to come back and is from WA) I am astounded sometimes at the arrogant nature and self entitlement culture. I also want to fly again!!

Now I know many are likely to disagree and probably tell me to go back (I'm working on that) but it's my observations from over 50 years in Europe.

Well Nivsy, being a man of the world you might also have noticed that, with the exception of Kerry Stokes' Channel 7, the news on WA TV is not only Australian-biased, it is also heavily NSW / VIC biased.
Great if your interested in the weather in Killara or crowd numbers at the rugby league games or why every state should erect giant statues of Beryl.
That is because the bl....dy lot comes out of the "eastern states".

Channel 7 is the only one giving substantial WA content and that is a deliberate counter to the drivel that we have to endure from the others.

it’s actually 8 guys. 😆

Population of Perth can't be much more than a few hundred, so he has maybe 80 people that like him. Maybe when they get to 1000 they can have some local TV and stuff.

We had local TV.
It was all taken over by east coast propagandists long ago.

That’s to funny, WA always talking of a secession, can’t run a health system and does not have local TV network to tell them how bad it is. Maybe that’s why it was sold off.

We still have Fat Cat telling us to go to bed at 7:30pm. Last bastion of local TV.

Well you’ve got some sort of a plan out of WA.

Whilst a specific date is not locked in yet it’ll be around late January, which if you’ve listened to what was being said in local rags shouldn’t be too surprising.

The one thing that was a bit unexpected was the announcement that international travel will resume around the same time subject to conditions (vaccination and neg test before and after arrival) and no quarantine.

I had thought that there would be a delay of several months between domestic and international borders reopening, which is why some airlines had forecast scheduled international services resuming in April/May.

Surely better news, albeit not perfect, for those operating international flights out of Perth than what was previously expected.

It's a plan yes. Now let's see if the population "embraces" the percentage figure for vaccination quoted before anything happens. Call me cynical but with WA who knows!

Well with the number of people currently calling talk back radio to say the will never get vaccinated because they know ‘ the truth’ ( that has been hidden from the rest of us) , we may never get to the required number for the borders to open.

Yep .words fail me...😤😒..funny how certain people in WA know "the truth" yet the world does not....so WA

From what was announced once the reopening date is set it’s locked in, and if the vax targets are not met they still reopen but there’ll be further restrictions on masks and capacity limits, so the state will be open but it puts a burden on the lazy to get vaccinated so they can be blamed for any mask wearing requirements.

As far as doses go NSW, Vic have reached 90% first dose, Tasmania is just about to and the ACT is over 90% double doses so the figure is easily achievable.

The volume of anti-vaxxers is always far out of proportion to their actual numbers.

For instance in some companies both in Australia and overseas while in surveys 15-20% of people said they wouldn’t get vaccinated, in reality when push came to shove the actual amount of refusers was less than 1%.

Like on this forum, at various times I’d say 20-30% of posters were anti-vax, but the rate of vaccine refusal in aviation workers is minuscule.

There’s been anti-vax protests in every state. I think Victoria has had the most and they’re over 90% DD.

We currently need 250000 people to get vaccinated to reach the 80 percent when the opening date will be set. That’s a quarter of a million people that need two vaccinations. If they reckon that will happen by January.. they are dreaming

Tomorrow WA hits 80% first dose. Almost all who have one will have two and with mRNA vaccines the interval will be 3-4 weeks so then 80% double dose will be reached, and then set the date based on 90% which is currently around 13th of January. Even if that blows out by a week or two it’ll still mean a late January date is locked in around the end of this month.

And if it's not met I got the impression that the borders will still re-open but with increased restrictions in the state on capacity limits, mask wearing etc. I would guess that the mandatory vaccine rules will take care of most of the gap from 80-90% and the idea is to avoid lockdowns for people who enjoy living while the virus beds into the remaining 10-20% of muppets.

For a while i thought it was the rest of the country living like prisoners, turns out the fine vaccinated folk of WA are the real prisoners. Tell me again why those vaccinated should be held hostage by the scum of society?

MaoGowan needs to amend his speech. He said there will be mass hospitalisations and deaths if they open at 80%. We’ll there won’t be any more hospitalisations than there are now you incompetent moron, your hospitals are already chokkas without COVID. A bigger failure of the Australian people, you will not find.

They’re not. If you read the plan carefully, once 80% is reached (which will be in 3-4 weeks) the reopening date is set and it is set in stone (I actually expected him to say it could change if required but no it’s apparently going to be firm), regardless if the vax rate then falls off a cliff beyond 80%. After reopening there’ll be vaccine passports to deny entry for the unvaccinated into venues and events as well as interstate and international travel.

It is several weeks behind the rest but it appears to be pretty solid.

Actually, the figure is closer to 10% across ALL industries of people who are anti the vaccination, or otherwise unable to be vaccinated. Pretty consistent across the country from a statistical point of view.

Looking at some numbers of vaccine refusers in various organisations by the time any mandate due dates occurred:

Royal Melbourne Hospital 0.4%
NSW Health 0.1%
SA Health less than 1%
Nationwide Aged Care workers: 0.3%
Qld Health: less than 2%
WA AMA members 0.02%

Vaccination rates will be over 90% in every state. There's far more anti vaxxers on social media than in real life.