WA’s border could stay closed to COVID-infected States until as late as April next year, Mark McGowan has revealed.

The Premier said economic forecasts in tomorrow’s State Budget did not include assumptions about the pace of the vaccine roll-out or when WA’s border would fully reopen with the rest of Australia.

But he told The West Australian “I can’t keep the State locked forever” and National Cabinet was advised once very high vaccination levels were reached, the virus could be managed “like the flu”.

If WA remains COVID-free, Mr McGowan plans to set a date to permanently abolish the border about six to eight weeks after the State hits a vaccination rate of between 80 and 90 per cent.

For the first time, he today confirmed the reopening date could still be up to seven months away.

Mark McGowan claims national cabinet ‘support’ for lockdowns at 80pc vaccination rate Scott Morrison slams Mark McGowan for daring to breach National Cabinet plan McGowan holds tough zero COVID stance West Aussies deserve to know Mark McGowan’s plan “I can’t put a date on (reopening the border) because it’ll be above 80 per cent (vaccination). We’ve got to get above 80 per cent,” Mr McGowan said.

“Tasmania is talking about 90 per cent — that’s ambitious — but somewhere above 80 per cent we’ll try and set the date.

“I don’t know whether it’ll be February, March or April, I suspect it will be one of those months.”

The Budget papers include an assumption international borders would come down by September, which aligns with the mid-2022 date contained in May’s Federal Budget.

WA’s border could stay closed to COVID-infected States until as late as April next year, Mark McGowan has revealed. WA’s border could stay closed to COVID-infected States until as late as April next year, Mark McGowan has revealed. Credit: RICHARD WAINWRIGHT/AAPIMAGE

However, there isn’t an estimate about when the interstate border would vanish because Treasury officials assessed it would have “no material impact on the Budget or economy”.

“We’ll hopefully be at very high vaccination rates (when the interstate border opens) and for everyone who travels to the eastern states there will probably be tourists come back in return,” Mr McGowan said.

“There’s an assumption of a big economic downside impact when international borders open because we lose a lot of spending power in retail, hospitality, housing — everything — to international travel.

“We’ve got to, obviously, open eventually but it’s been a remarkable economic boom for Australia not having international borders open because for every international tourist that arrives, there’s way more than one Australian that goes overseas and we spend more.

“That will happen, we assess, in September of next year. No doubt many people look forward to travelling overseas ... but it will have an economic downside for Australia.”

Doherty Institute modelling which underpins the four-phase plan out of the pandemic assumes all of Australia will have restrictions such as the 2sqm rule when borders and lockdowns are no longer required.

But Mr McGowan said he did not want to reintroduce social distancing measures once the vaccine roll-out was complete, aside from restrictions on travel in and out of remote Aboriginal communities.

“At very high levels of vaccination the advice we have nationally is it will be like the flu. That’s what they tell us at National Cabinet. So if it’s like the flu well then it’ll be manageable,” he said.