Western Australia's government is set to finally end the state of emergency used to close borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premier Mark McGowan has confirmed his government will in coming days introduce urgent legislation to parliament enabling a "temporary COVID-19 declaration", which would replace the emergency powers first introduced in early-2020.
Under the new arrangement, the government would no longer be able to declare immediate border closures.
The police commissioner would retain the power to make declarations about mask-wearing in aged and disability care settings and stay-home orders for positive cases.
WA kept its borders closed for almost two years before finally reopening in March this year.
Mr McGowan said it was the right time to move to "much lesser" powers, with the pandemic threat no longer as serious.
"A lot of people have called for this. We've listened," he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
"We've drafted it as quickly as we can but we need to get it through the parliament so we can implement it when the existing state of emergency expires."
The state government is set to begin operating the newly completed $400 million quarantine centre at Bullsbrook in Perth's north.
With returned travellers no longer required to quarantine, Mr McGowan had flagged potentially using the Commonwealth-funded facility as temporary accommodation for overseas workers.
But the premier on Wednesday conceded there was insufficient demand.
"We were hoping for that but we consulted industry and they weren't that keen," he said.
"The location is way out there in Bullsbrook in the bush. The Morrison Liberal government decided to put it out there."
The centre will instead be prepared for use during disasters including bushfires.
The WA government will spend $13m on maintaining the facility before handing it back to the Commonwealth after a year.
Other states have also grappled with how to use their own quarantine facilities.
The Centre for National Resilience COVID-19 quarantine facility in the Northern Territory closed earlier this year.
