Premier Mark McGowan has defended Western Australia's COVID-19 contact tracing capacity after Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared to question the state's readiness for an outbreak.
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WA has ranked near the bottom among state and territories for testing throughout the pandemic, partly because case numbers have also remained low.
The prime minister has described NSW as setting the gold standard with its contact tracing, noting that other states need to remain "match-fit" in case of future outbreaks.
"When you don't have many cases, well there's not a lot to trace. And that would be the case in Western Australia at the moment, and many other states and territories," Mr Morrison said on Monday.
"But if there were to be an outbreak in one of those states, you'd want to be confident of two things - that your testing regime was strong enough ... but also that the tracing capability will be able to move quickly."
Mr McGowan said WA authorities were helping Victoria remotely with their contact tracing and contingency plans remained in place for any local outbreaks.
"Obviously we don't have hundreds or thousands of people sitting around on the phones when we haven't had a single (unknown source) case in 150 days," the premier said.
"That would be a waste of time and money.
"But what we do have is plans in place and a surge capacity should it be required and that's a sensible approach to this issue.
"In some ways, Western Australia at this point in time has been a victim of our own success and that's why these sorts of things are being said about our state."
One new case was recorded on Tuesday after a returned overseas traveller - a woman in her 50s from interstate - tested positive. The state has five active cases.
Mr McGowan said WA was testing about 3000 people a day, with record-low levels of flu and colds partly responsible for the low test numbers.
Along with the hard interstate border, WA has also kept some restrictions on people entering remote Aboriginal communities.
It has forced a federal parliamentary committee investigating Rio Tinto's destruction of the ancient Juukan Gorge rock shelters to abandon planned hearings on the land of the traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.
"Non-West Australian federal MPs, we were concerned about coming into the state and going potentially into remote Aboriginal communities," Mr McGowan said.
"I think it makes total sense that that inquiry be postponed.
"That's one of the rules we still have in place because people in remote Aboriginal communities are very vulnerable to the virus."
Australian Associated Press
