Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk slammed over school shutdown apology

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s apology to parents for the broadscale closure of hundreds of schools after wild weather failed to materialise has been labelled ‘media management’.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has apologised to parents for her broadscale closure of hundreds of schools across southeast Queensland after wild weather failed to materialise.

But she still backed her decision based on horror forecasts, saying “the last thing I would want would be for a young child to lose their life”.

As parents complained they’d been made to keep their children at home despite blue skies, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli called for the decision and school miscommunication to be made part of the government’s wider review of the flooding disaster, suggesting the apology was only valid if the Premier learned from it.

The rare move followed an almost unprecedented decision in March 2017 to close all schools from Agnes Water to the NSW border and west to Nanango due to bad weather caused by ex-tropical Cyclone Debbie.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

It’s understood conversations were held during Thursday’s Queensland Disaster Management Committee meeting around the potential for life-threatening situations Friday if storms coincided with school pick-up and drop-off times and heavy school traffic.

Authorities were concerned wild weather and flash flooding could necessitate the rescue of children from cars, warning that the sodden catchments could mean even a normal summer storm could lead to abnormal flooding.

The Courier-Mail was told QFES and QPS representatives were particularly concerned about the potential for dangerous rescue situations.

But it’s understood the actual decision to close schools was made in a separate meeting after the briefing attended by the Premier and Education Minister Grace Grace and high-level emergency services representatives.

It came as the death toll from this week’s weather rose to 10, with the body of a 53-year-old man found under a wharf at The Port of Brisbane.

Fears are held for one man still missing after falling from a boat in the Brisbane River earlier in the week.

Meanwhile, March temperature records fell across the north and extreme heatwave conditions were forecast to persist from Cairns to St Lawrence.

The strong severe weather warnings, combined with orders to stay home and pause flood clean-up efforts also frustrated those inundated with water.

Residents eager to start the clean-up in earnest anxiously awaited a severe downpour predicted for Friday morning but clear skies greeted Brisbane for most of the day.

The Bureau of Meteorology said rainfall throughout the state’s southeast was isolated with showers persisting north of Gympie and near Warwick.

“But those unstable conditions, which can lead to severe storms, have really backed off,” senior meteorologist Laura Boekel said on Friday afternoon.

Mud army efforts and clean-up operations were advised to get started early on Saturday with clear conditions expected in the morning before forecast showers in the afternoon and threats of heavier falls on Sunday.

However, the already high levels of water in the southeast meant short bursts of rain could still lead to roads being inundated, warned Ms Boekel.

“Because everything is so saturated we can’t take any more water in the ground, so that’s when we start to get flash flooding,” she said.

“There’s still that hidden risk that it could take just a shower or storm, not that heavy or intense, to see localised and renewed inundation or flash flooding, just because everything’s saturated.”

Ms Palaszczuk admitted “we can always do better” and said “people are only human”.

“Can I say to all of the parents in the southeast, that I apologise for the inconvenience, but I think everybody would realise that if you were in my shoes and you were given the advice that was given to us yesterday, I think everyone would have taken exactly the same decision,” she said.

“But I do acknowledge that there has been some inconvenience today for parents but safety has to come first and, at the end of the day, you can only act on the advice that you’re given.

“And that advice given to me and to the senior management staff was that it was going to be very, very severe thunderstorms and hail yesterday.”

Mr Crisafulli welcomed the Premier’s admission that her “captain’s call” had been wrong.

“What we saw this morning was the Premier apologise but then say that she’d do it all again,” he said.

“That’s not learning from your mistakes, that’s not taking Queenslanders into your trust and promising to do better.

“That looks like media management.”