The New South Wales health minister has launched a scathing attack on the Queensland government, accusing it of playing “loopy politics” by keeping the borders between the two states closed.
On Wednesday, the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, lifted the stakes in what has been an increasingly tense war of words between the two states, saying he was “appalled” by Queensland’s decision to keep the border shut.
“I can only express my anger, my supreme anger, at the Queensland premier’s decision, which in my view broadly across the border currently is nothing more than base, loopy politics,” Hazzard said.
“I’m appalled by what’s going on up there.”
Relations between the two states have become increasingly tense in recent weeks as the NSW government becomes increasingly frustrated with Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s refusal to reopen their shared border.
Last week, the NSW treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, suggested Palaszczuk was putting the Queensland election ahead of the welfare of NSW residents, and Berejiklian has previously complained the Queensland premier was not returning her calls.
In an interview with the Nine Network on Wednesday morning, Berejiklian lashed out at the Queensland premier saying: “I do begrudge her,” in relation to the border closure.
At a press briefing later on Wednesday she said the border closure “shouldn’t be the case”.
“It hurts when you hear about grandparents not having met grandchildren yet,” she said.
“If we had case numbers that were out of control that we weren’t managing, I could understand that. But NSW hasn’t been in that situation.”
But Palaszczuk, who is facing vocal opposition from the Queensland Liberal national party in the lead-up to the state election next month, defended the border closure, saying she was following the advice of the state’s chief health officer.
“We would not be in the situation we are today without the advice of the chief health officer. Under this government, we will continue to accept and abide by her advice,” Palaszczuk said.
“I don’t know what the future holds, I don’t know if all of this could be at risk if at the end of October the LNP is in office and the borders are opened.”
NSW reported nine new cases of Covid-19 Wednesday, including one mystery case, as the number linked to a cluster at Sydney’s Concord and Liverpool hospitals rose to 12.
The state’s chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, announced visitors to the hospital are banned until 10am on Friday so deep cleaning can be done while non-urgent surgery has been cancelled.
In Victoria on Wednesday, the premier, Daniel Andrews, said regional Victoria could see Covid-19 restrictions ease sooner than the rest of the state as the number of new cases outside of Melbourne continue to fall.
Victoria recorded 76 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, up from 55 the day before, as well as 11 deaths, and Andrews was again forced to defend modelling used to craft the state’s roadmap out of lockdown.
The roadmap, released on Sunday, has been criticised by the federal government, Melbourne’s business community and some epidemiologists as being too conservative. During a press briefing on Wednesday, Andrews was pushed on whether the modelling underpinning the plan had presented a worst-case scenario.
But the Victorian premier defended the modelling, which has not been fully released, saying the government had taken a “realistic and cautious” approach to the roadmap. Andrews said that in his view the “worst-case scenario” would have been to reopen the state prematurely before being forced to lock down again if case numbers began rising.
“We would all like to be open tomorrow, myself included. But to do that is not an act of leadership, that is to cave to some of the pressure that is there, to be driven by anger instead of the epidemiology, to be driven by opinion instead of science and data and doctors. That is not what I’m about.”
Questions about the science continue to mount, however, with several leading epidemiologists criticising the roadmap. Peter Collignon, professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, said the plan was “unattainable”, while Deakin University’s chair of epidemiology, Catherine Bennett, said she was “really disappointed” by the plan.
Nevertheless, Andrews remained steadfast on the roadmap.
“This number is higher than yesterday, but the trend is with us. The numbers are falling, we are getting down to very small numbers. We have got to be smaller before we can safely open up and stay open.
“That is the key here. There is simply no benefit for anyone – unless a restaurant can do a year’s worth of work in three weeks, it doesn’t make any sense. Being open for just a few weeks and then being closed again, that is not a strategy. It could be popular for a short while but that is not my concern.”
In a note of optimism, Andrews said on Wednesday that falling case numbers outside of Melbourne could see restrictions eased in some regional parts of the state “quite soon”.
“We have not put a date on when regional Victoria will take its next step or steps, and we did not subset regional Victoria into 10 different regions because we knew it would not be six or eight weeks … they are on the cusp of those targets now,” he said.
“Community transmission is obviously an issue as well, you have to make sure you don’t have any of those [cases], but regional Victoria will be able to take a step and maybe two, quite soon.”
