Annastacia Palaszczuk requests more research from Doherty Institute on Covid and young children

The Premier is calling for more research into how opening Queensland up to the Covid pandemic will impact young children, saying while they remain unable to get the vaccine it is “the most serious issue our country will face”. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Annastacia Palaszczuk has invoked the safety of young children as she continued to refuse to open up the state to the Covid pandemic.

The Premier drew on the fact that under 12-year-olds cannot be vaccinated to argue why she was reluctant to agree to any plans to open up without further research, asking: “What’s going to happen to the children?”

Facing questions from the opposition during parliamentary question time today, Ms Palaszczuk said she had asked for further research from the Doherty Institute around how opening up would impact on children.

“I honestly believe that we need to have further research done on what happens to the 0 to 12-year-old cohort as they remain unvaccinated,” she said.

“This is the most serious issue that our country will face.

“The plan has now moved to vaccinate high school students, which I fully support.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks during Question Time at Parliament House in Brisbane. Picture: Dan Peled

She said the US was seeing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and she said people in Tokyo had told her that unprotected children were wearing masks everywhere, including in schools and childcare centres.

“Unless there is an answer on how these young people are going to be vaccinated, you are putting this most vulnerable population at risk,” she said.

“So anyone who has grandchildren, or young children, or nephews or nieces know how that plays on people’s minds.”

She said it was her understanding that the Doherty Institute had committed to looking into the issues.

“There are many steps ahead of us towards this plan, but the number one thing we can do is get as many of our population vaccinated now,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said she also wanted more information on planning of the country’s vaccination booster program.

The comments are the strongest Ms Palaszczuk has made around the safety of children, and follow the recent Indooroopilly cluster during which many children were infected and some were hospitalised.

However, in response, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned it will be a “ludicrous” situation if the rest of Australia is able to “travel to Canada before Cairns” as he fired back at the Premier.

Mr Frydenberg name-checked Ms Palaszczuk as he urged her and WA Premier Mark McGowan to stick to the national plan to ease restrictions when vaccination rates hit 70-80 per cent.

“If we don’t stick to the national plan, businesses will close. If we don’t stick to the national plan, jobs will be lost,” he said.

“It is not realistic that you can keep your borders closed indefinitely.

“Wouldn’t it be ludicrous if the Queensland borders were closed to visitors from New South Wales and Victoria who would help drive jobs in Queensland’s tourism industry, how ridiculous would it be that you could travel to Canada before you could go to Cairns.”

He said it would “definitely hurt the economy” if borders remain closed.

Federal Labor has backed the comments made by the Queensland Premier, with shadow treasurer and Logan MP Jim Chalmers saying vaccinating kids should be “absolutely central” to Australia’s road map out of Covid-19.

Mr Chalmers, speaking in Brisbane, said one of the major gaps in the national plan was the paucity of information on when children will be vaccinated.

“There is a lot of anxiety in the Australian community,” he said.

“One of the big differences about this delta strain has been its capacity to move through school aged kids and so that’s something that needs to be addressed.

“I don’t accept that raising important issues around the vaccination of our kids is somehow secondary, or somehow some kind of political ploy to distract from the main game. I think it’s part of the main game.”

LNP frontbencher Deb Frecklington asked whether the Premier was suggesting lockdowns and closed borders would continue until 100 per cent of the population was vaccinated.

Ms Palaszczuk repeated she wanted to see the research around children.

“What’s going to happen to the children?” she said.

“I want to know what is going to happen to the children of this state.”

Federal Labor has repeatedly said it supports the agreed national roadmap out of Covid-19.

Children aged 12 to 15 will be able to book vaccine appointments from mid-September.

No country in the world is currently vaccinating children under 12.