West Australian border Covid-style police checkpoints brought back by Premier Mark McGowan
Western Australia is desperate to get back to how things were during the coronavirus pandemic as it reintroduces draconian Covid-style police checkpoints under the guise of a crackdown on illegal drugs and cycling.
From later this year, visitors to Western Australia by road, air or sea will be required to pass through police-manned barricades where vehicles can be searched.
The measures are part of a package of extraordinary powers being transferred to the police by Prime Minister Mark McGowan under so-called ‘meth buster’ laws.
The laws will be in effect at least until 2028.
The Western Australian government said police requested the move because meth use fell by 51 percent in Perth and up to 73 percent in regional areas during the pandemic period.
“This new law will make it more difficult than ever for organized crime to bring drugs into Western Australia,” McGowan said.
Under new powers, WA Police will once again man border checkpoints as they did during the Covid period (pictured officers and Royal Australian performing stops in April 2020)
Police Minister Paul Papalia said the state was in effect “creating a hard meth border.”
The phrase evoked memories of the pandemic period when Western Australia’s “hard border” effectively sealed off the country from the world for 697 days.
Mr Papalia said the laws mainly targeted the importation of cycling drugs.
“This really allows us to focus on disrupting and breaking the power the outlaw biker gangs have over our communities,” he said.
“They (meth deliveries) come from overseas, they come from the interstate, they’re delivered to Western Australia by triads and mafia and overseas cartels, and then they’re distributed, mainly in Australia by outlaw biker gangs.”
However, not everyone agrees with the new border powers.
Nova newscaster and social commentator Michelle Stephenson was one to voice her concerns.
“If you’re not worried about this, you should be,” said the Western Australian resident.
Rebel News chief Avi Yemini labeled Mr McGowan a “dictator” for bringing back the laws.
Mark McGowan is now indefinitely bringing back pandemic powers for other uses. Once a dictator, always a dictator.’
WA Premier Mark McGowan says the new checkpoints will impede the flow of meth into the state
There will be 22 permanent police search areas around airports, ports, road and rail border crossings into Western Australia.
Roads outside the airport, ports and train stations will have checkpoints where police can stop and search vehicles using electronic wands and drug sniffer dogs.
There will be exceptions to the power of arrest and search ‘for people who are engaged in certain activities’, although it is unclear which these are.
Despite the WA Police being given powers that no other police force in Australia has, the state government assured the public that they would not be misused.
It said there were “various checks and balances,” including oversight by the state’s Corruption and Crime Commission.
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch described the laws as a “new tool in the toolbox” to stop the drug trade.
“Police officers will use all legislative options and a range of capabilities to prevent these drugs from entering our communities and to bring to justice the criminals behind these imports,” he said.
During the Covid period from April 2020 to March 2022, Western Australia barred anyone from entering the state except for essential purposes.
After declaring the state was reopening, Mr McGowan acknowledged that the “hard border” had hit many people hugely, but insisted it was necessary to “save lives”.
“Placing one was not something I thought I would ever have to do as Prime Minister,” he wrote on social media
“It’s something I hope no prime minister ever has to do again.”
WA says biker gangs are main meth smugglers in Western Australia (photo stock image)