WA Police have fined a Canberra politician who "unwittingly" breached the state's strict border rules, realising two days into his stay that he had been to NSW before travelling.
ACT Liberal Mark Parton travelled from Canberra to regional Western Australia on Monday to visit his mother, despite having been in New South Wales in the past 14 days.
Upon realising he was in breach, he said he immediately began isolating and contacted authorities.
"I feel pretty stupid," Mr Parton said on Facebook.
"I take COVID very seriously, and am very sorry for this oversight."
Under WA's border rules, anybody who has been in New South Wales in the past two weeks is not allowed to enter without an exemption.
On Thursday night, WA police charged Mr Parton with a $1,000 infringement for failing to comply with a direction.
WA Premier Mark McGowan urged people like Mr Parton to "follow the rules".
"I'd urge everyone to adhere to the rules, especially those people who have been to NSW or Victoria," Mr McGowan said.
"He could be liable to a fine, he could even be liable to a $50,000 fine or imprisonment, so I'd just urge people like him to follow the rules."
Mr Parton said he had only been in Queanbeyan, just over the ACT border, for a "couple of hours" and that it did not register with him that he had travelled to NSW.
"It came to my attention that I have unwittingly breached WA's border restrictions, due to spending a couple of hours just a few kms across the ACT border," he said.
"To be honest, it simply hadn't occurred to me that I had 'travelled to NSW' when I flew into WA this week.
"Queanbeyan is just 10 kilometres from my house and at the end of the day I tend to consider it as a suburb of Canberra."
No cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Queanbeyan, however WA's border rules apply to the entire state of NSW.
Mr Parton, who is the Deputy Speaker of the ACT Legislative Assembly and holds a number of shadow portfolios, declined the ABC's request for an interview.
But the Canberra Liberals released a statement saying Mr Parton believed he was acting within the rules at the time of travel.
"At the time of filling out his G2G application, it was true that Mr Parton had not been in NSW within the relevant period," the statement said.
"However, a few weeks after lodging the application, he visited NSW less than 3km over the ACT border.
"Given the nature of the ACT/NSW border, it genuinely didn't occur to Mr Parton that he had 'travelled to NSW' when he arrived in WA."
