Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says: ‘I don’t make the decisions’ … So who’s running this state?
An under-siege Annastacia Palaszczuk has sensationally said ‘I don’t make the decisions’ when it comes to Queensland’s border farce, where families are heartbreakingly being blocked from seeing dying relatives. Meanwhile, the Chief Health Officer admits she gives exemptions on economic grounds. VOTE IN THE POLL
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Under-siege Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has sensationally said ‘I don’t make the decisions’ as she faces a barrage of criticism over Queensland’s tough border restrictions which ban families from the chance to say a final goodbye to dying relatives.
The Premier is facing the toughest test of her leadership after causing a national outcry for refusing to intervene in a grieving daughter’s attempt to attend her dad’s funeral while her Chief Health Officer is now making economic decisions.
It also comes as two key ministers announced shock resignations.
Ms Palaszczuk this morning said ‘let me make it very clear, I don’t make these decisions, it is her (the Chief Health Officer’s) decision, under the Act it is her decision … you’ve got to take the clinician’s advice’.
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Breaking down at the end of her press conference, the Premier admitted blocking family from funerals was ‘heartbreaking and gut-wrenching’ but said ‘I don’t make these decisions’.
The comments now beg the question … who is really running this state with Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young solely in charge of Queensland’s critical border decisions.
A poll of more than 6000 The Courier Mail readers shows support has swung away from the Premier on the border stance, with 82 per cent now saying they do not support the hard line rules.
Ms Palaszczuk yesterday courted intensifying criticism over the decision to not allow Sarah Caisip to attend her father’s funeral, instead she was allowed to briefly view his body at a funeral home after the service – but only while wearing full protective equipment and isolated from her family.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the situation “mystifying” but Ms Palaszczuk responded by accusing him of ‘bullying’ her and claimed she could not help.
It came as Dr Young made the stunning admission she let Hollywood super star Tom Hanks into Queensland because “entertainment and film bring a lot of money into this state”.
Meanwhile, State Development and Tourism Minister Kate Jones – touted as a future premier – and Energy Minister Anthony Lynham both quit, sending shockwaves through Labor just weeks from an election that appears poised on a knife-edge.
THE THREE KEY MOMENTS THAT HAS PREMIER UNDER SIEGE:
CALLOUS INSULT TO GRIEVING DAUGHTER:
Yesterday started badly and only got worse for the Premier, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison stepping in to plead with her to overrule a decision not to allow Canberra woman Sarah Caisip the chance to farewell her father at his Mt Gravatt funeral.
She had sought to travel north to surprise her dying dad for Father’s Day, but only received permission to enter Brisbane last Friday – two days after he died.
Her request for an exemption to attend his funeral with her mum and 11-year-old sister was denied and she was stuck in hotel quarantine until an eleventh-hour decision allowed her to visit him in the funeral home for 10 minutes following the service.
There were harrowing images of the 26-year-old woman dressed in full personal protective equipment, including a face-shield over a medical mask, when she was eventually allowed to have a private viewing of her father’s body – isolated from her mother and sister.
PM ‘MYSTIFIED’ AT BORDER DEBACLE:
Mr Morrison, his office or colleagues have had to plea for a slew of cases to be reconsidered, including parents separated from their newborn son for days, a woman seeking follow-up appointments for breast cancer surgery and a man who wished to farewell his mother before she died.
Mr Morrison made personal and public appeals to Ms Palaszczuk to let Ms Caisip leave quarantine to attend the funeral, breaking down in tears on radio as he urged compassion be shown, saying “just today, please”.
Ms Palaszczuk made the extraordinary claim Mr Morrison had tried to bully her over the heartbreaking case, while saying she had no power to overrule Dr Young’s decision.
She said there were political motivations for the request, despite the ACT’s Labor chief minister Andrew Barr also making representations on the case.
Mr Morrison, who called Ms Caisip to offer his condolences, said he was “mystified at the discretion not exercised”.
A string of hardship cases were revealed including a couple from northern NSW who had their newborn son flown to Brisbane but the parents were told they had to go into a 14-day quarantine, a breast-cancer patient who had surgery in a Queensland hospital and is still waiting on an exemption to attend a follow-up appointment and a woman was given an exemption to travel to Brisbane to visit her terminally ill father in hospital, but when he was discharged to his home she was initially not allowed to travel and see him at the different location.
ELECTION SHOCK AS MPS QUIT:
Amid the border fracas, Queensland lost a possible future premier and another extremely talented minister, and all because of a system that would even have prevented Peter Beattie becoming premier had it been around during his time in politics.
Tourism Minister, Kate Jones, a 41-year-old mother of two, yesterday shocked the establishment and walked away from a successful political career, which included defeating a sitting premier.
Joining Jones in the political exit lounge was Energy Minister Anthony Lynham, who decided he could no longer juggle the demands of a Cabinet career with remaining a qualified surgeon.
The loss of their collective talent is a bitter blow for the Labor Government ahead of its quest for a third term.
FULL STORY HERE ABOUT WHY JONES QUIT
