Lucy Carne: Queensland’s quarantine exemption mess has created an unfair class hierarchy
Blinded by the October 31 election, the Palaszczuk government has turned quarantine exemptions into a new class system where doors are opened if you’re rich or influential, writes Lucy Carne.
Opinion
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Not sure if you read the fine print.
It’s there under Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s favourite slogans as she bravely defends the Sunshine State from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
“We cannot put Queenslanders at risk,” is one rallying cry.
Then there is the patriotic catchphrase: “I make no apologies for protecting the health of Queenslanders.”
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But if you look very closely, there are a few caveats: “*Unless you are a rugby league coach, boxing ring worker, diplomatic security guard, son of a trucking billionaire, yacht owner or TV celebrity.”
For what has emerged from the border closures is the absolute dog’s breakfast that is Queensland’s quarantine exemptions.
They are as confusing and unfortunate as Ms Palaszczuk’s dabble with a boho-wavy hairstyle last week.
Despite attempts to emulate her, Ms Palaszczuk is not Jacinda Ardern.
Regardless of whether you agree with her politics or not, the New Zealand Prime Minister’s “going hard and going early” philosophy towards COVID protection has been a masterclass in leadership.
Ms Ardern balanced an early lockdown with authentic sympathy for the challenges faced by the nation and transparency about the government’s plan.
There is little confusion for Kiwis about what each lockdown stage entails and the plan is to recover.
Not so for Queensland.
Little detail has been shared on the plan for economic recovery.
Each press conference comes with an air of unpredictability like they’re making it up on the fly.
The result is befuddled Queenslanders scrambling to make sense of what the latest tweak to restrictions entails. What are we at now, stage 3.729?
But it is the opaque rules around quarantine that are Queensland’s biggest embarrassment.
The Queensland government has reportedly received more than 10,500 exemption requests since June 18 but less than 40 have met the criteria to quarantine outside of the government-mandated hotels.
Blinded by the October 31 election, Ms Palaszczuk has turned quarantine exemptions into a new class system.
If you are wealthy, influential or famous, you are granted VIP treatment. Doors are opened for you – literally.
But if you are sick or poor, you must slum it with the rest of the plebs, regardless of whether you may have just survived high-risk brain surgery.
This goes against everything that Labor says they stand for.
Where is the “commitment to fairness … no matter what a person’s circumstances”? What about the party’s “firm belief that we should all have the same opportunities in life”?
It certainly wasn’t there for Sunshine Coast woman Jayne Brown who underwent surgery with Dr Charlie Teo in Sydney this month to remove brain tumours that threatened to permanently paralyse and blind her.
What was Queensland’s response when she asked to quarantine at home in the loving care of her family, just like that which was granted to Anthony Seibold and Dannii Minogue? Get in a hotel for two weeks.
What about the couple from Northern NSW desperately trying to have a baby and who had started IVF with a Brisbane clinic but were forced to risk their embryos and abandon their treatment? Forget about it.
Or the heartbreaking death of Kimberley and Scott Brown’s unborn twin due to confusion over Queensland’s hotel quarantine exemptions.
That this Ballina mother, far from her home and family, now lies in a Sydney hospital bed desperately trying to keep her other unborn baby alive is a sickening and shameful result of Queensland’s blurred lines.
This is not an argument to open the borders.
Nor is it an attempt to blame the Palaszczuk government for the death of this tiny baby girl.
We cannot predict what the outcome would have been if she was flown 30 minutes north to a Brisbane hospital rather than wait 17 hours for a flight to Sydney.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young claims Ms Brown would have been exempt due to the high-risk medical threat to her unborn children.
But it is the uncertainty of our exemption process that is to blame.
When a brain cancer survivor must quarantine in a hotel but a football coach does not, why are we surprised that doctors deem it futile to apply for a Queensland medical exemption.
Ms Palaszczuk may not regret her xenophobic comments that “Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders”.
But she may not be able to shrug off the class hierarchy behind exemptions.
For when Collingwood president Eddie McGuire and AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan arrive in Queensland, they cannot receive preferential treatment, regardless of how much Ms Palaszczuk wants to host the grand final.
Wealth and influence must no longer override the sick and needy. Exemptions must be clear, but most importantly they must be fair.