Opinion: Annastacia Palaszczuk’s pandemic ‘plan’ is a shambles

Rather than keeping Queenslanders safe, Annastacia Palaszczuk's new mantra seems to be to keep them guessing, writes Kylie Lang. VOTE IN OUR POLL

A pathway out of the pandemic has become a hackneyed phrase as the Premier continues to ignore her responsibility as leader of this state – and that is, to govern in the best interests of the people of Queensland and not her own.

As businesses haemorrhage and families are torn apart, Annastacia Palaszczuk has refused to detail a plan for Queensland on how to live with Covid-19, including the highly contagious Delta strain we’re told is coming with deadly certainty.

That might be because she doesn’t actually have a plan.

Either way, it is inexcusable.

What we’ve seen instead are glaring inconsistencies around quarantine situations – celebrities can isolate in mansions but regular folk get stuck in dingy hotel rooms with dire consequences for their mental and physical health.

We’ve seen border exemptions for people of influence while others without any such pull are denied.

And we’ve seen social distancing become a joke, with weddings, funerals and other significant events scuppered while the football goes ahead.

Playing politics has trumped common sense and compassion from the get-go of this pandemic, with just outcomes for ordinary Queenslanders achieved only after they take their story to the media.

Six-year-old Lenny Silveira and his father Fabio, who travelled from the Sunshine Coast to the US so the child could have brain surgery to treat his cerebral palsy, is the latest example of Queensland Health’s chronic ineptitude and mismanagement.

And now, the Premier appears to be washing her hands of her government’s bungled vaccine rollout, telling us this week that she’s done all she can.

Pardon?

Ms Palaszczuk, who has used the pandemic to promote herself and her ability to “keep Queenslanders safe”, said: “We’ve done all we can to keep you safe but this next step is up to you.

“I need you to get vaccinated and I need you to do it now.

“It takes five weeks from the first dose to be completely vaccinated. Five weeks from today is the 17th of November – that’s getting very close to Christmas.”

Could this be a sign that the Premier finally might be moving to open the borders to NSW and Victoria? You tell me, because her words tell me nothing.

“Keep Queenslanders guessing” seems to be the mantra.

There is a reason our state is the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to our dismal vaccination rate.

And it’s not to do with the Federal Government withholding supply, as the Premier has claimed.

The Palaszczuk machine has given mixed messages about vaccines, with Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young’s clanger about AstraZenaca being unsafe for the under-40s perhaps the most damaging of all.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young yesterday. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

It has urged people to rock up to suburban immunisation hubs only for them to be turned away because it underestimated demand – oops, thanks for queuing for four hours, but we’ve run out.

And maybe if Queensland’s Health’s online booking system was more user-friendly, more people would have rolled up their sleeves.

But now, we find ourselves with a surplus of the once-precious Pfizer, with doctors warning it will go to waste in parts of Brisbane and that Queensland will be unable to deal with an inevitable wave of Covid.

They say people’s interest in getting vaccinated is decreasing, as fresh data shows the rate of first doses per 100 people has dropped to early September levels.

An email from the Brisbane North Primary Health Network sent to GPs reveals about 1300 vials of Pfizer, containing an estimated 7800 doses, are bound for the bin.

Demand in Townsville, where vaccination rates were about 68 per cent, has also waned, with one GP saying, “there will come a point where people just don’t want to come in anymore”.

Widespread vaccination is central to the pathway out of the pandemic this government doesn’t want to talk about.

Telling Queenslanders it has done all it can to encourage vaccination is just another cop out.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

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■New laws to benefit renters, who for too long have been at the mercy of landlords unwilling to do necessary property repairs.

LOATHE

■Record petrol prices. As if we weren’t slugged enough already for fuel.

■Bigots having a crack at NSW premier Dominic Perrottet for his faith. He’s Catholic, so what? Judge him on his performance.

■Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk electing herself as Minister for the Olympics. Power trip much?