Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she will not budge on easing Queensland’s border restrictions
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the Federal Government can “throw whoever they want at it” but she will not budge on easing Queensland’s border restrictions.
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would not budge on easing Queensland’s border restrictions.
“Queensland will continue to have our borders closed to keep Queenslanders safe,” she said.
“I’m not going to be moved on this.
“The Federal Government can throw whoever they want at that.”
Ms Palaszczuk said an economy couldn’t grow without having health under control.
It comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he nation faced “economic ruin” and a damaging “retreat into provincialism” from continuing closures.
Mr Morrison on Friday demanded Ms Palaszczuk explain why a woman pregnant with twins in Ballina in northern NSW did not get an exemption to receive medical treatment in Brisbane. One of the unborn twins died.
The family waited 16 hours to get on the flight to Sydney after trying to get emergency treatment for the infant in Brisbane but determining that applying for a border exemption would have taken too long.
Mr Morrison declared on Friday last week that there will be a definition of the COVID-19 hotspot – even if state premiers refuse to follow suit.
“I can assure you of this, there will be a national definition of a hotspot, come rain hail or shine,” he said.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles today said a clinical unit would be set up to streamline requests by NSW residents for access for specialist appointments and hospital access.
Asked about the Prime Minister’s plan for a national description of hot spots, Ms Palaszczuk today said she hadn’t seen any detail.
She said she would look at it but would not be changing her position on keeping Queenslanders safe.
“The National Cabinet has always worked in the best interests for the nation but in terms of border closures, there is a federal court decision that states can rely on the health advice to keep their borders closed and that’s exactly what we will continue to do,” she said.
“I have not seen any papers or any evidence on how a hot spot system would work.”
Meanwhile, the Premier was asked by a local reporter about her decision to bring Brisbane-based members of Cabinet to Cairns considering there were warnings about community transfer of COVID in the southeast and warnings from the Chief Health Officer to only travel if necessary.
“There is no problem with Cabinet coming to Cairns,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“And as we saw today, the numbers of that cluster are all known contacts of that cluster so we’ve got to get out and about, we’ve got to listen to the community … and we’ve had to postpone this twice.
“I’m not going to let the Cairns community down.”