That was Premier Mark McGowan’s message when the state border closed on April 2, 2020.
It’s that isolationist mentality and the premier’s management of COVID-19 that has been overwhelmingly backed by West Australians, and will be front and centre in many voters’ minds.
It will ensure the Labor state government is returned for a second term, most likely with an increased majority.
The WA election boils down to the fact many voters believe that over the past bumpy year, Mr McGowan kept them safe, while the Liberals were all over the place.
This has been the constant feedback on the talkback line.
The Clive Palmer challenge came and went — he lost.
Pressure from local Liberals, the Federal Government and other states to change the strict border measures only steeled the premier’s resolve.
Time and time again Mr McGowan said the East Coast just does not understand Western Australia.
The argument was successfully prosecuted through the pandemic.
Like Colin Barnett before him, Mr McGowan turbo-charged the “east versus west” divide for political gain.
And parochialism reigns supreme, for now.
But there are also results that speak for themselves.
This week the WA budget was recognised as the strongest in the world.
And Labor has been able to exploit a Liberal Party in turmoil. A post-mortem review is already being drafted by some conservative MPs, who may wake up unemployed on Sunday.
Had the pandemic not happened would Mr McGowan be in as strong a position as he is? He was never going to lose this one, but it has helped.
The management of COVID-19 helped New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern win her election, enabling her party to govern in its own right.
Annastacia Palaszcuk’s Queensland government, so similar in its COVID-19 approach to Mr McGowan’s, convincingly thrashed the LNP opposition who only 12 months before looked like ending her reign.
But has the WA government gone too far with the ‘WA-first’ rhetoric?
The scuttlebutt yesterday around the national cheap airfares policy was that there was a lack of appetite from Qantas and Virgin to promise much to WA because of the risk of border closures.
Mark McGowan held out for so long, going his own way on signing up to a federal framework on borders.
He won’t let that go, but in the next term he will have to make sure he is not overplaying WA’s isolation advantage, at the expense of national and interstate relations.
Shutting up to the east coast and establishing a siege mentality was easy, but keeping the drawbridge down is the next challenge.
Oliver Peterson and Gareth Parker will host a live election count show on 6PR from 6pm on March 13.
This content first appear on 9news