@tangs; what matters most is the mindset people carry over when the time comes to reduce restrictions.
How that pans out is apparent in the daily case numbers for Albury & Wodonga [sister cities straddling the Murray] since Xmas when they were close to zero.
The people of NSW have been led to believe that NSW is the 'gold standard state' which can defy anything that Covid throws at it. Victorian know from painful experience that such gung-ho attitudes exacerbate outbreaks.
Due to NSW's narcissistic wild west attitude, officially reported active Covid cases in Albury [NSW] since Xmas day are three times those of Wodonga [Vic] even though Albury excludes positive RAT reports from its data.
Except for freedumb protesters and anti-vaxxers, Victorians have been more responsible, more likely to wear masks, more likely to use QR codes and less likely to have indoor freedom parties. But we have no restrictions on travel across the border so that Victorians still have to accommodate what's being exported from NSW.
WA will still be shielded by thousands of kms of open space, but the people of WA will need to come to terms with much larger outbreaks and adjust their mindsets accordingly [ie. don't take being Covid-free thus far for granted and don't model yourselves on NSW].
