Palaszczuk Government’s self-check on COVID-19 response fails to pass the pub test

The Palaszczuk Government’s plan to oversee its own response to the COVID-19 crisis doesn’t pass the pub test, writes Jessica Marszalek.

IF you were responding to the worst public health and economic crisis in 100 years, how appropriate would it be for you to also head the inquiry into whether you were doing a good job?

It probably wouldn’t pass the pub test, right? I mean, if the pubs were open to hold one.

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But that’s what the Palaszczuk Government has put in place this past week during a special one-day parliament sitting in which it passed legislation allowing it to spend $4 billion of taxpayer money responding to this unprecedented crisis.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

In Canberra, a Select Committee on COVID-19, chaired by a Labor senator, has already grilled Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy in its first public hearing. Just two of the 7 members are Coalition Government members.

In NSW, a Green MP is leading their COVID-19 committee and only three of the seven members are from the coalition government.

In SA, two of six committee members are from the coalition government.

Victoria’s Labor Government dominated its committee until an extra person was added to create a 50/50 split.

The Palaszczuk Government used its numbers last week to ensure two government-led committees would oversee its economic and health response to COVID-19, prompting Opposition claims it was a case of “Caesar judging Caesar”.

It voted down the Opposition’s plan to at least allow a non-government member to chair the health-focused committee.

A reduced Queensland parliament voted to put government-led committees in charge of overseeing the COVID-19 response (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

Queensland has done a very good job so far of dampening the virus.

We certainly haven’t seen any major blunders like the Ruby Princess disaster the NSW Government, and the nation for that matter, is still dealing with.

But that doesn’t mean every step has been perfect.

And Queenslanders who are making extreme sacrifices on government advice do deserve proper scrutiny of policies and decisions that are up-ending their lives.

They would also want to be sure that massive $4 billion COVID-19 package was being spent in the best possible way just months ahead of a state election.

Parents and students across the state are gearing up for another stressful week of home schooling after a substandard start last week marred by apparently unforeseeable IT fails, despite the government-mandated online learning arrangements.

The response from the government was also substandard. Education Minister Grace Grace did not front the media to answer questions the day the sites went down, even though Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would. The government ended the week on the back foot after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared home schooling was “not working too well” for working parents whose productivity was suffering.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly stated schools are safe. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

It is fairly apparent Canberra believes schools are safe and kids should be back in classrooms. His attack dog, Peter Dutton, has accused the Palaszczuk Government of folding to the demands of the Queensland Teacher’s Union.

This all raises questions for parents. Then there was last week’s major own goal around aged care homes.

The normally subdued Premier came out red-hot against the “cruel” and “callous” aged care homes that were in lock down, barring people from their loved ones despite health advice saying that was unnecessary.

So angry was she that she threatened to name and shame offending centres.

State-run aged care homes in Queensland have been among those forbidding visitors.

The only problem was government-run aged care homes were doing it too, and readers who contacted The Sunday Mail were pretty unhappy about the apparent hypocrisy.

There have been Queenslanders fined unfairly by confused police officers, signalling that public messaging has certainly, at times, been less than clear.

There are questions around the engagement between the government and the NRL in its quest to restart its season.

It would certainly make sense to maintain a positive relationship with a code that means big bucks for Queensland and has been discussing the potential for a future Grand Final at Suncorp Stadium, even if the health advice means players have to cool it a little longer.

And it was only an intense letter-writing campaign, in which landlords delivered tens of thousands of letters to Ms Palaszczuk's inbox, that saw a disaster averted regarding residential tenancy protections.

The Premier’s office received tens of thousands of letters from landlords angry at their initial rental protections.

Queenslanders have been compliant and have shown an incredible amount of goodwill so far. But the public’s mood is fragile and no government is perfect.

The Premier has been at pains to stress that the middle of a global pandemic is no time for politics.

But she’s not listened to her own advice in this case.

Her government should not be dodging important questions asked on behalf of Queenslanders. And they should not be afraid of the answers.