‘Road out’ of pandemic plan to be discussed at National Cabinet
Amid calls from Morrison Government ministers for “the insanity to stop” in Queensland, there will be a heated border show down at National Cabinet on Friday. But a bigger idea to plan for a “road out” of the pandemic could cause waves.
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QUEENSLAND’S borders are under siege as the state faces immense pressure to ease its hard line restrictions, which have been slammed for causing chaos across the country.
Rather than pushing Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to tear down the borders, it’s understood Prime Minister Scott Morrison will urge “common sense and compassionate” reforms to the hard line stance, to put an end to medical, farming and family heartache.
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Business groups, senior Ministers and the NSW Premier are turning up the heat, urging the “insanity to stop”, warning the lack of consistent exemptions was causing economic damage.
The focus will be on the state developing proper processes for dealing with medical, compassionate and agricultural exemptions to its current strict approach.
The Prime Minister, with likely back up from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, will urge Queensland for compassion and consistency in the border rules it sets out.
It follows outrage after a Ballina woman lost one of her unborn twins, after doctors recommended she go to Sydney for surgery after mistakenly believing she would have been required to undergo 14 days quarantine if sent to the closer Brisbane hospitals.
Mr Morrison will present a national hotspot definition, based on COVID-19 case densities in a given area, to the National Cabinet but this will only be the first step of a broader “road out” of the pandemic plan.
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The broader “road out” plan will begin to be discussed, but not presented or decided upon at the meeting, and will potentially feature a traffic light system for the reopening of states and the economy.
Queensland will not be expected to sign up to the national hotspot definition at today’s meeting.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has called for “the insanity to stop” on the inconsistent restrictions, saying he as “ashamed as a Queenslander” at what was happening.
“When the premier of Queensland can allow 400 AFL executives to swan around a resort in the Gold Coast, but won’t allow teenage boarding school children to go home to see their parents into remote New South Wales is abhorrent,” he said.
“It’s wrong Australians don’t do that to other Australians.”
The State Government has said it is grant some exemptions to boarding school families and the Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young was continuing to speak with family representatives.
Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young yesterday stood by the state’s demands that there be 28 days without any community transmission before the borders will open to NSW, even though there have been no cases in the ACT, which remains a hotspot, for more than 50 days.
“We know that the highest risk of bringing the virus into the state is from areas that have higher amounts of community transmission,” he said.
Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said the 28 day standard set by Queensland was a “very, very high benchmark to set”.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it was an all but impossible.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever get to that number. They’re putting on a pretty big ask during a pandemic,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk has repeatedly said she would not apologise for the tough restrictions, saying they were “keeping Queenslanders safe”.
Housing Industry Association Gold Coast boss Toni Bull urged the border restrictions to be eased, saying the government had how many businesses had been impacted.
“The border closure and the inconsistency regarding who can work where is now causing anxiety and financial stress for many builders and tradies who need to cross the borders every day for work.
WA Premier Mark McGowan has also pre-emptively rejected signing on to any national hotspot plan, saying they were not as effective as borders.
“We are not going to agree to bring down the borders, I have made that clear to the Prime Minister,” he said.
Also on the agenda at the National Cabinet will be a briefing from the Bureau of Meteorology on the potential for a high-risk weather season, covering the potential for bushfire and cyclones.
There will be further discussions regarding the returning Australian international arrival caps, but no change is expected today.