‘Saving Tasmanian lives’: former premier Peter Gutwein recounts pandemic border shutdown call

Former Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein was just weeks into the top job in early 2020 when a looming global health emergency threatened the very future of the island state.

Premier Peter Gutwein at a government Covid update during the pandemic in Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

Former Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein was just weeks into the top job in early 2020 when a looming global health emergency threatened the very future of the island state.

Exactly five years after taking the unprecedented step of closing Tasmania’s border as Covid-19 ran rampant across mainland Australia, Mr Gutwein looked back on an extraordinary chapter in Tasmanian history, and the single objective that drove his every move as leader throughout the pandemic.

“When we first started seeing the impacts of Covid across the world in February 2020, we made a commitment that we wanted to save as many Tasmanian lives as we possibly could, and all decisions were made through that context,” Mr Gutwein said.

“We’d received modelling in the previous couple of weeks which showed that we would be decimated as a community if Covid got loose.

“If a ship is sinking at sea, it can close its water-tight compartments to keep moving forward.

“From my perspective, the different Australian states and territories were the compartments, and the vast majority of them looked like they were in trouble.

“And so I took the opportunity to close our borders.

“I do recall a conversation with another premier at the time, who was arguing vociferously against me doing so.

“But from my perspective, Australia’s eastern seaboard looked exactly the same as Italy in America did then in terms of where Covid was at, and I wanted to keep Tasmania safe.”

Premier Peter Gutwein in his office during the pandemic. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Tasmania’s new leader, who had only just taken over from long-serving premier Will Hodgman, quickly assembled a crack team of advisers and health officials to help Tasmania plot a course through the difficult and uncharted waters ahead.

To this day, Mr Gutwein remains grateful for the diligence and professionalism displayed by his tight-knit group – and by the state service generally – to keep Tasmanians informed during several months dominated by uncertainty and fear.

Pandemic’s darkest days

The Premier began what would become several weeks of consecutive daily press conferences, ostensibly to provide public updates about the virus, but with the aim of maintaining trust, continuity, and community confidence during the darkest days of the pandemic.

“This wasn’t standing up and delivering a press conference where you had 24 hours to look at notes and nuance things,” Mr Gutwein recalled.

The Mercury front page on March 20, 2020

“The National Health Committee met through the night, every night, and Dr Mark Veitch would meet with us first thing in the morning. And then sometimes, within minutes, we’d stand up and we conduct a press conference.

“The media was extremely helpful, under difficult circumstances, in ensuring the information got out to Tasmanians on a number of different platforms, to keep them informed, to let them know what we were doing, and to enable them to plan.

“Health secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks, DPAC secretary Jenny Gale, Dr Veitch, Police Commissioner Darren Hine, my chief of staff, Andrew Finch, and deputy chief, Barbara McGregor.

“This core group would meet each day, which in itself was challenging because of social distancing and we couldn’t even use a space as large as the Cabinet Room.

“We all kept our distance from each other, because at that particular point in time there was no vaccination, and on TV we were seeing freezer trucks parked outside of hospitals in New York, and mass graves being dug in Italy.

“But that group was fantastic, and each and every one of them did more than could reasonably be expected of people in those circumstances. They just stood up.”

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein at vaccination centre in Bridgewater getting his jab from nurse, Leah.

Over a two-year period making life-and-death calls about border shutdowns and re-openings, social distancing restrictions, lockdowns, mandatory mask use, and vaccination roll-outs, Mr Gutwein said he was always guided by the fact that Tasmanian had one of the unhealthiest populations in the country, and one of the oldest.

Gutwein’s one regret

And while the former premier remains overwhelmingly comfortable with the hard decisions he took throughout the pandemic to keep Tasmanians safe, he admitted to one minor regret in the government’s response to the virus.

“If I were to do it again, the one thing that I would spend more time doing would be getting people ready for just how quickly Covid did spread in Tasmania after we opened the borders, even though people were vaccinated and safe in relative terms,” Mr Gutwein said.

“The spread of Covid between Christmas and New Year in 2021, I think, caught everybody by surprise.”

After being briefly hospitalised with exhaustion in August 2021, Mr Gutwein suddenly resigned as premier the following April, saying he had “nothing left in the tank to give”, and articulating a strong desire to be reunited with his family.

‘Measured like dog years’

Looking back on a 20-year parliamentary career which ended at the summit of Tasmanian politics, Mr Gutwein admits the 26 months he spent inside the premier’s suite felt more like a decade.

Covid update with Premier Peter Gutwein. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“I think Covid years should be measured like dog years,” he said.

“I think in everyone’s life they get that one moment, and my serious moment was looking after the state as best I could during a worldwide pandemic.

“But as difficult as the Covid period was for people, there was this extraordinary outpouring of a common humanity in Tasmania.

“I witnessed people regardless of colour, race, circumstance, or background, hold out their hand to help each other. Especially during the six to eight months in 2020 when we were in real difficulty, there was just this innate goodness and kindness among people.

“Many people had major concerns about whether they would have a job or a business, or what the impact might be on their children, but Tasmanians just stood up and did what they needed to do through that period.”

“We had librarians that were working in call centres assisting with questions about Covid, and Stage Growth staff working as part of border security.

“People just did what was requested of them, put up their hand and in really difficult and frightening circumstances, and did what was necessary to keep this little island safe.

“So I’m just so very thankful for everybody that played a part.”

Originally published as ‘Saving Tasmanian lives’: former premier Peter Gutwein recounts pandemic border shutdown call