Wrong number leaves Yvette D’Ath red-faced over Dutton attack
An embarrassing wrong number for Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has revealed a bizarre new low in relations between the state and federal governments.
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Relations between Queensland and the Commonwealth have hit a bizarre new low with Health Minister Yvette D’Ath slamming Peter Dutton for failing to respond to her calls and texts – only to later discover she’d been dialling the wrong number.
The embarrassing gaffe was in response to a report in Wednesday’s Courier-Mail that revealed Diggers were stuck in Dubai and unable to return because the Queensland government had denied them entry while allowing NRL players and partners and Indian cricketers access.
Ms D’Ath hit out at “false claims” that the state had left Aussie troops stranded and that she had tried to get on to Peter Dutton for an explanation – to no avail.
“I‘ve sent a text to Peter Dutton this morning, asking him to call me. I have not heard from him,” Ms D’Ath said, later showing reporters her text and call log.
Ms D’Ath said around 300 ADF personnel should start arriving in Queensland from Thursday to quarantine in a “bubble’ environment meaning they would be able to move around a hotel and socialise with each other.
“The chief health officer’s been working with the Australian Defence Force since last Friday,” she said.
“The information I have as of yesterday the ADF secured the Mercure Hotel on the Gold Coast.”
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the Federal Government had the welcome mat out for them, and the “Queensland government clearly should as well”.
“You would think it would be a relatively straightforward solution,” she said.
It comes as the spat over vaccines continues between the state and Commonwealth, with Ms D’Ath criticising Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt over his comment that 60,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine was available to Queensland but had not been taken.
“If there are 60,000 on offer to Queensland, we’ll take it,” Ms D’Ath said.
“We weren’t told there were 60,000 available to order, these are the games that are being played right now.
“I look forward to Greg Hunt delivering it … because last time he stood up and said there were vaccines available to us, I wrote to him immediately and he said, actually there’s not additional stock, it’s the same doses you asked for.”
Queensland recorded no new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours to Wednesday morning after a record day of vaccinations, with more than 23,000 jabs administered on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the jab could be made mandatory for all health workers, with Ms D’Ath revealing discussions were currently being held with stakeholders.
“We’re looking at that right now (mandatory vaccination),” she said.
The Minister said about 80 per cent of Queensland’s health workforce have had at least one dose.
“But I do want to see this go further, and we’re having conversations with stakeholders as we speak,” she said.
There are 35.22 per cent of Queenslanders who have received their second dose.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young said the Beenleigh cluster which pushed the state to the brink of a lockdown last week was now steady at three people.
Dr Young said it was safe to allow visitors to aged care homes and hospitals in the Logan region, but called for Queenslanders to get vaccinated and remain vigilant.
From Monday people aged 12 years and over will be eligible to get the Pfizer vaccine.
More than 1.4m vaccine doses are expected to be sent to Queensland from now until the end of September, according to the federal health department.
This includes 766,000 Pfizer doses for the GP arm of the rollout and 69,000 Moderna jabs for pharmacists.
The state government is due to receive about 570,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, with 188,000 of those coming from the dose swap deals done with Britain, Poland and Singapore.
Originally published as Wrong number leaves Yvette D’Ath red-faced over Dutton attack
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