James Morrow: Annastacia Palaszczuk wins gold for vaccine cruelty

While the last premier to get the jab plans a trip to Tokyo, her health bureaucrats are keeping a young family separated because of Covid “risks”, writes James Morrow.

Remember, it’s a pandemic, so we’re all in this together.

All of us, that is, except for Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

That’s because on Monday she pointedly reminded us all that there is in fact one law for the few, and then there’s another for you.

The last of the nation’s leaders to get the jab (after blaming a dog bite for the delay), Palaszczuk finally rolled up her sleeve for her first Pfizer shot (despite being 51 and in the AstraZeneca age bracket), “in the event I need to travel to Tokyo for the Olympics.”

Not even Scott Morrison is going to the Olympics, but Queensland is in the running for the 2032 games.

Priorities, people.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is given the her COVID-19 vaccination by clinical nurse Dawn Pedder in Brisbane. NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

But to see how backwards all of this is, compare her experience to that of the Haidar family.

Moe Haidar and his 30 week pregnant wife Sarah were in hotel quarantine in Brisbane, having returned home from Qatar, when on 26 May Sarah was rushed to hospital for a C-section after experiencing “complications”.

She gave birth to their son, Ilyas, but was immediately separated from the infant and banged up in a specialised Covid-19 room in the hospital.

After much pleading and media attention, her husband was allowed to join her.

But neither have been allowed to see or touch their baby.

Because they aren’t important enough to “need to travel to Tokyo” or what have you, the pair are still being held in isolation and relying on Facetime for contact with their son.

And Queensland Health says they are staying there until their scheduled release Wednesday – despite both of them having received both their Pfizer jabs and testing negative to Covid.

A Queensland bureaucrat defended the utterly heartless decision to keep them locked up, saying, “we can’t afford to take risks.”

Moe and Sarah Haidar are being kept from seeing their infant by Queensland health bureaucrats

Of course, that’s nothing compared to what happened to another couple who lost an unborn twin to Palaszczuk’s border paranoia last year, after she said that Queensland hospitals were “for our people only.”

And this all comes in a term of government Palaszczuk won by slamming the panic button, keeping her borders shut and terrifying voters about the scorched Covid wasteland lying just south of Goldie.

Hopefully Premier Palaszczuk, if she does go, enjoys her time in Tokyo.

Maybe while she’s schmoozing over soba noodles she can spare a thought for the Haidars and their young son, too.