Marita Corbett responds to Covid-19 Inquiry after death of her brother Brendan Luxton

The sister of a Queensland man who died soon after his release from quarantine during the pandemic has spoken about her family’s horrific experience.

Marita Corbett at her Brisbane home for COVID-19 inquiry, Friday, November 1, 2024 - Picture: Richard Walker

When the next pandemic hits, prepare for anarchy.

That’s the message from Marita Corbett, whose brother Brendan Luxton was cruelly failed by the State Government’s draconian policies during the height of Covid-19.

Mr Luxton, a retired successful financier and a childhood friend of Annastacia Palaszczuk, suicided within 24 hours of release from his quarantine in the Marriott Hotel in July 2020.

The Palaszczuk government ignored at least eight pleas from his family to allow the desperately ill 51-year-old to safely quarantine in his sister’s home.

Mrs Corbett said the federal Covid-19 Response Inquiry Report had confirmed her family’s horrific lived experience – that the measures employed by the state were “barbaric”.

“Reading the report now, it feels like we are back underwater, with that same feeling of frustration we voiced when we were trying to save Brendan,” she said from her Coorparoo home.

“It is certainly hurtful to read it all again and the new information lays the direct responsibility and accountability at state level – this is a real finger pointer.

“It wasn’t good enough then and it’s not good enough now.”

Mrs Corbett said Queensland was ill-prepared for a future pandemic and anarchy would be a justified response “because of how barbaric it was”.

The tragedy of Brendan Luxton. Photo: Supplied

“Remember when we were obediently wearing masks in our own cars, driving solo for a maximum of 5km? When you rerun this and other scenarios, it was all so cuckoo.

“It was a draconian experience that hurt everyone, emotionally and financially, and there will be noncompliance from the public.”

Mrs Corbett, national lead partner (risk advisory) at BDO Australia, said if she were hit with unduly harsh restrictions again, she’d give authorities “two to the valley”, a polite way of saying “up yours” with two fingers in a V shape.

“I’d say, ‘come and arrest me!’”

She said her family, including mother Liz and other brother Derek Luxton, would never get over what happened to their beloved Brendan.

“Still not a day goes by that we don’t think of him,” she said.

“His death could have been prevented but instead, as his mental state deteriorated before our eyes, our pleas for common sense and compassion were ignored.”