WA Premier Mark McGowan is not impressed by Greater Sydney’s “freedom day” milestone, instead aiming another dig at his NSW counterpart Dominic Perrottet for getting excited about freedoms sandgropers have been enjoying throughout the majority of the pandemic.
“They’re all getting excited about having a haircut and drinking a beer whereas we’ve been able to have haircuts and drink beers for a long period of time wherever you might like,” he said.
“In fact, you can go to some places and have a haircut and drink a beer at the same time.”
The comments are the latest in a series of tit-for-tat jibes between Mr McGowan and Mr Perrottet over the GST distribution and handling of the pandemic.
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Last week at the opening of BHPs South Flank mine site Mr McGowan wielded a spear and joked he would use it on Mr Perrottet.
“I’m serious… anyone want to take me on? Where’s Dom Perrottet?” he said.
The relationship between the two leaders has been icy ever since Mr Perrottet called Mr McGowan “the Gollum of Australian politics” (a reference to JRR Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings) on the day the WA Premier revealed a $5.6 billion budget surplus.
Mr Perrottet, then NSW Treasurer, was referring to the state’s GST share, which can no longer drop below 70 cents in the dollar even when other revenue sources such as iron ore royalties increase dramatically.
He said the GST was akin to Gollum’s “precious” ring at the heart of Tolkien’s novels.
After Mr Perrottet was elevated to Premier on October 5 Mr McGowan said he hadn’t congratulated him because he didn’t have his number but on Monday he revealed that both premiers had now spoken.
“He rang me it was a very good conversation and we talked about the GST. We agreed to disagree on the GST,” Mr McGowan said.
Where the premiers did agree was the nation’s relationship with China.
“Obviously we had a bit of a chat about the nation and … our trading position with our major trading partners, in particular China, and we both agreed that that needs to improve,” he said.
Mr McGowan said WA would remain closed to NSW as Greater Sydney emerged from lockdown but he had offered medical support.
“I said to him that as they open up, if they need additional medical support, obviously the other states are there to assist, including Western Australia,” he said.
“Whether it’s nurses or doctors or whatever it might be, the other states are there to assist NSW over that difficult transition period.
“He was quite interested in that.”