Brad Hazzard ‘disturbed’ by other states’ reaction to NSW Covid crisis

NSW’s health Minister has hit out furiously at other leaders over how they reacted to NSW’s appeal for Pfizer as the state plunges deeper into a Covid crisis.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has blasted the rest of the nation for not immediately sending Pfizer vaccine supplies to Sydney as the state plunges deeper into a Covid crisis.

Shortly after announcing 163 new cases on Saturday, Mr Hazzard said he was disturbed by how other leaders had responded to the state’s plea for help on Friday.

“I want to remind those other states and territories that last time I looked, we were a Commonwealth, we worked together,” he said.

“It disturbs me that it would (seem) that all we’ve ever done to work together has just seemingly been cast aside.”

Mr Hazzard likened the Covid crisis to working together on bushfires and floods. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Among Mr Hazzard’s pointed remarks was a reminder that during Victoria’s second wave in mid-2020 he had sent health staff to the southern state who “put their lives on the line”.

He said staff told him upon their return “they really did feel that they had risked their lives in going down there, but that was what they were prepared to do to support our friends in Victoria, our fellow Australians in Victoria”.

Mr Hazzard likened the Covid crisis to bushfires and floods, saying he “can’t quite see the difference” between states working together to address natural disasters and doing the same with the virus.

“If it gets worse here in NSW, (the virus) could actually create massive problems for the whole country,” he said.

“More than half of all Australians who have come back have come back through the gateway of Sydney.

“We continue to step up and make sure that we support our nation, our Commonwealth, and I certainly ask for the other leaders in our other states to reflect on that, because we need the Pfizer that they may have that they don’t have such a great need for at the present time.”

He appealed for vaccines to be administered to young people in southwest and western Sydney, saying “we need them to have the Pfizer”.

On Friday afternoon, national cabinet knocked back a proposal from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for vaccine supplies to be redirected to Sydney.

Instead, it was decided NSW vaccine centres would extend the second dose of Pfizer from three weeks out to six, allowing for more first jabs in arms as soon as possible.

South Premier Steven Marshall underscored no vaccines from South Australia would go to NSW as he announced one new case on Saturday.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said everyone needed to work together. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

“The reality is we are in a major emergency declaration in South Australia, in the middle of a lockdown, and we just can’t possibly be sending our vaccines to another state,” he told reporters.

“We have to protect our population and we will be doing everything we can to do exactly and precisely that.”

Across the border, Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley also said Victoria would not send NSW any of its allocated vaccine supply.

“That would mean cancelling appointments … this is one of the problems of a relative scarcity of supply,” he said.

“The real question is, how do we all support NSW and any other state or territory while also making sure that the fundamental positions of our first and primary obligation to the protection and wellbeing of Victorians is managed in that context – the two go together.”

Originally published as Brad Hazzard ‘disturbed’ by other states’ reaction to NSW Covid crisis