Premier Steven Marshall accused of setting poor example over trip to Queensland
The Premier has defended his visit to Queensland for his son’s graduation despite the Police Commissioner is urging people to rethink trips to the Sunshine State. VOTE IN OUR POLL
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Premier Steven Marshall has been accused of setting a poor example after he travelled to Queensland at a time when authorities are urging South Australians to rethink visiting the state due to coronavirus concerns.
However, Mr Marshall says his trip to the Sunshine State, primarily to attend his son’s graduation, was “perfectly legitimate”.
It came after Liberal Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington posted on Twitter a photograph of herself and Mr Marshall in Queensland on Tuesday.
“Met with Premier @marshall_steven to discuss the @LNPQLD‘s plans to get Qld working again by stimulating the economy, creating a decade of secure jobs & dragging Qld out of recession,” she captioned the picture.
Mr Marshall flew to Queensland on Saturday. It is unclear when he returned but he was in SA on Wednesday.
The trip has drawn criticism from the Opposition, who questioned whether Mr Marshall should have gone to Queensland given that state COVID Coordinator, and SA Police Commissioner, Grant Stevens is urging South Australians to reconsider the necessity of travelling to the state.
“Travel to and from Queensland should be reconsidered” because “restrictions may be imposed at short notice”,” SA Police said in a statement on July 31.
SA Police confirmed this advice still stands.
Mr Stevens said his advice was intended to warn travellers about any pending changes to help avoid cancellation costs.
“My view of the premier’s travel is that he was acting in accordance with the instructions,” he said.
“He made a decision... based on the risk of COVID-19 impacting on our current travel restrictions and travelled accordingly.”
Labor spokesman Tom Koutsantonis said the Premier should be a “standout example” to South Australians.
“No one begrudges the Premier a holiday, but if the Premier is not setting the example by following the state controller’s advice, why should anyone else follow the state controller’s advice?” he said.
Mr Koutsantonis said as a father he could understand Mr Marshall wanting to attend his son’s graduation, if that’s what he was doing, but it was a bad look given there were other SA businesses and families who have been struggling because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“As a Premier, the question becomes well how many people have missed out on seeing their newborn...grandchildren, (not) gone to a funeral, (not) gone to a wedding, have missed out on important family moments in their lives because of the pandemic? he said.
“The Premier is the leader of the state – he should be setting an example.”
Mr Marshall confirmed he travelled to Queensland for his son’s graduation, saying “it’s perfectly acceptable to travel into Queensland”.
He said he paid for the trip himself and also squeezed in work meetings while there.
“I think the Police Commissioner put out some advice...last month which suggested that there could be changed situations in the future based upon the fact that two Queensland women travelled down to Victoria, got infected, came back to (Queensland and) we were really on heightened alert last month,” Mr Marshall said.
“But Queensland has done extraordinarily well with very, very low numbers over the last two weeks so we would encourage people always to be aware that there can be changed conditions but certainly my travel was perfectly legitimate.”
Mr Marshall said “we do need to have travel”.
“We’ve got a lot of people employed in the travel sector,” he said.
“We’ve got to have travel both ways.”
– with Andrew Hough
