At least four federal MPs have returned home to Western Australia instead of staying in Canberra for the first sitting of parliament for the year.
WA MPs were given special exemption to work in Parliament House after the bulk of their home state went into a hard lockdown to deal with a coronavirus case, forcing the ACT to put in place restrictions on visitors from that state.
Labor frontbencher Madeleine King was one of those who decided to turn around and go home.
"Each of us as members of parliament have different responsibilities and different roles in the parliament; also different responsibilities to our electorates and different private and personal responsibilities," she told Sky News on Tuesday.
"A few of us made the decision to return home."
Ms King said she also had some concerns about "the ability to return to Perth" should circumstances in the pandemic change this week.
"Not everyone perhaps shared those concerns as much as me but some did and on that basis I did decide to return home to my community."
Other Labor MPs to return included Anne Aly, Matt Keogh and Josh Wilson.
A positive COVID-19 test in a Perth CBD hotel guard, who visited more than a dozen venues over several days while infectious, led to metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the South West being forced into five-day lockdown scheduled to finish on Friday night.
