An ACT politician who breached WA’s hard border rules by visiting NSW days before travelling west to see his mother has been fined $1000.
WA has a hard border in place with NSW, which means anyone who has recently been in the eastern state needs an exemption to enter WA.
ACT Liberal MP Mark Parton admitted he was briefly in NSW before he flew to Perth on Monday to see his mum in regional WA.
In a social media post before he was fined, Mr Parton said he felt “pretty stupid” and was “very sorry”.
In a statement late on Thursday, the WA Police Force said the 54-year-old had been advised he would be issued with a $1000 infringement for failing to comply with a direction.
“It is alleged that the man failed to declare that he attended an address in NSW in the preceding 14 days of travel to WA, making him subject to the NSW outbreak directions,” police said.
Mr Parton said he had unwittingly breached WA’s border restrictions by spending a couple of hours “just a few kms across the ACT border”.
“To be honest, it simply hadn’t occurred to me that I had ‘travelled to NSW’ when I flew into WA this week,” he wrote on social media.
“Queanbeyan is just 10kms from my house and, at the end of the day, I tend to consider it as a suburb of Canberra.”
