‘GOLD’: Australia goes nuts for The West’s satirical splash

Australia has gone nuts over the front page of The West Australian’s Saturday, February 5 edition.

The satirical splash on the newspaper looks 30 years into the future when, after 11,628 days of WA’s hard border, the State ‘FINALLY’ reopens.

A post of the cover shared on PerthNow alone has been seen by one million people, generating more than 6500 reactions and many more thousand comments.

The front page, which depicts “Supreme Leader” Mark McGowan, now 84 and after nine straight election victories, congratutlating Aussies for hitting the “150 per cent” vaccination rate and saying it is finally time to throw open the gates to the rest of Australia: “We are ready to live with COVID.”

It also included, tongue-in-cheek, a congratulations from now PM Ash Barty (we wouldn’t put this role past the Grand Slam champion).

The post also attracted plenty of attention after being shared on The West Australian’s own social media channels.

On Twitter, Medical expert Dr Nick Coatsworth described it as “gold”.

“Though (to be honest) the daylight saving and trading hours byline is actually the funniest bit,” he said.

The edition comes on February 5, the date when WA had hoped to be fully open.

That plan was shelved on January 20 when, amid an outbreak of Omicron, Premier Mark McGowan announced the planned reopening was off the table.

The WA Government has opted for a staged reopening, arguing that unlocking the gates would be “reckless and irresponsible”.