WA Premier Mark McGowan could play a crucial role in the timing of the next federal election through his tightly held grip on the state's borders.
While voters could be sent to the polls this year, May 21 is the last possible date for a regular election.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison concedes he will have little say on being allowed into Western Australia to campaign.
WA Premier Mark McGowan's (pictured left) hard border closure stance could force Scott Morrison (pictured right) to delay the next federal election
'It's not really up to me. That's up to the WA premier as to whether he opens the borders or not to anyone from the eastern states,' he told 6PR radio on Tuesday.
'They're decisions he will take in WA's interests and I understand that. I know what the powers are - they're his.
'But I also know that we want to be able to bring the country together and open up safely. That's what the national plan is about.'
Mr Morrison has consistently said the election would be next year.
The prime minister is adamant states should open borders at 80 per cent national vaccination coverage, but the WA premier is holding firm.
Mr McGowan told Labor's state conference on the weekend he wouldn't ease hard borders until a 90 per cent immunisation rate was reached.
He has flagged the prospect of travel bans remaining in place until well into next year.
Mr McGowan has spent 18 months conditioning his state's voters to be so terrified of a Covid outbreak they will support lengthy border closures.
While he kept WA's hard border up for eight months last year, he regularly implied that even slightly softening the border would immediately cause a huge, deadly outbreak.
According to a new survey of 1097 Western Australian residents, only 45 per cent were accepting of Covid infections (pictured, patrons in a Perth pub)
His consistent 'us vs them' rhetoric, playing on WA's longstanding antipathy towards the eastern states, appears to have been very successful.
A recent poll found only 45 per cent of respondents were accepting of any Covid-19 infections in WA - an impossibility once it opens to the world.
Just 33 per cent would tolerate anyone getting seriously ill and 29 per cent refused to open the border while there was any risk of even one Covid death.
This is despite an average of 46.5 people in WA dying of the flu in the first nine months of 2018 and 2019.
The Painted Dog Research survey also found that 84 per cent of Western Australians didn't think hospitals would be able to cope with a Covid outbreak.
The state also
