Gladys Berejiklian ‘loses her sh*t’ at Scott Morrison over lockdown advice

The rocky relationship between the NSW and Federal governments has deepened with Gladys Berejiklian furious over claims she ignored the PM’s advice.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian “lost her sh*t” over claims that she ignored the Prime Minister’s advice to lockdown the entire state days ago according to senior colleagues.

NSW ministers have told news.com.au that Ms Berejiklian is fed up with the constant undermining by the Morrison Government and expressed her anger on Sunday during private discussions where she threatened to return fire.

The latest flashpoint in the relationship between the Morrison Government and the NSW Premier as the Covid crisis engulfs the state came after The Sunday Telegraph reported on Saturday night the NSW Premier had been urged to lockdown days ago by the Prime Minister.

The Sydney Morning Herald subsequently reported that a source in the Prime Minister’s office “who requested anonymity” had also briefed a journalist on the claim, prompting a furious discussion between the NSW Premier and other ministers on Sunday.

RELATED: Follow our live NSW Covid-19 coverage here

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

NSW Premier ‘lost her sh*t’

As tensions rise between the Prime Minister and the NSW Premier, senior colleagues say Ms Berejiklian is fed up with the political machinations seeking to detail her private discussions to the media.

“Gladys lost her sh*t. She said ‘That’s rubbish, that’s absolute rubbish’,” a NSW minister told news.com.au.

“She said, ‘If they want to start backgrounding on stuff like this, maybe it’s time I started leaking stuff that the PM says to me that never comes to fruition, like on vaccines’.”

But sources familiar with discussions in the national security committee of the federal cabinet insist that the need for statewide lockdown was definitely discussed on Thursday.

The Prime Minister confirmed on Sunday this advice was conveyed to the NSW Premier but he wouldn’t say when, how, or why the NSW Premier had failed to act.

PM confirms he told NSW to lockdown

On Sunday, Mr Morrison was asked at a press conference in Canberra whether the reports that he urged NSW to lockdown the entire state were accurate and if this was the recommendation of the chief medical officer Paul Kelly.

“Well, I can confirm the decision of the NSW government to have a statewide lockdown is consistent with the advice that I had received from the chief medical officer that the government had considered and had been discussed with the NSW Government,’’ Mr Morrison said.

Asked why the NSW Premier refused to act on that advice and on which day the advice was offered, Mr Morrison declined to offer further details.

“I confirm what our position was and how we’ve relayed it and I’m pleased the decision has been taken and I think it is really important now that we just focus on making it work,’’ Mr Morrison said.

RELATED: November flagged for end of lockdown

Police patrol Bondi Beach on the weekend. Picture: Getty Images

NSW Premier insists she acted ‘immediately’

But just an hour later, Ms Berejiklian told journalists at a press conference in Sydney that “the absolute fact” was that she had acted to lockdown the state after advice from the chief medical officer Kerry Chant.

Asked if the Prime Minister had urged her to lockdown earlier, she offered the following response: “Can I say, what I’m about to say is the absolute fact. Yesterday, after the press conference, I went upstairs for a briefing with Dr Chant. She provided me with additional advice. I shared that advice with the Deputy Premier. We then moved to lockdown all of rural and regional New South Wales.”

The NSW Premier moved to lockdown the state on Saturday at 5pm after the latest sewage test results in regional NSW.

“To be frank, yesterday most of the state was locked down already,’’ she said. “It was just a few local government areas in regional and rural communities. Please know, that in a pandemic, you have to act on the health advice he receive and we had received advice yesterday about many people moving from the ACT to the southern parts of NSW which was a concern given what is happening in the ACT so that advice was provided to me yesterday and we took that advice immediately.”

Dr Chant rejected claims on Sunday that NSW had not acted swiftly enough.

“I provided advice about the need for a statewide lock down from the briefing yesterday and it is clearly needed because of the emerging case numbers in the region,’’ Dr Chant said.

She confirmed the decision was taken after sewage test results in regional areas on Saturday confirmed Covid traces but warned NSW that it faced a “fork in the road.”

“We have a choice at the moment. The choice I’m urging the community to do is stay with the health orders, redouble your efforts, do not take risks, protect your loved ones and just hold with us with an intensity over the upcoming two to three weeks. This is a choice. Otherwise the outcome will be so serious.”

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

Fight over Covid troops

Relations between the NSW and federal government remain frosty after the Prime Minister offered to send in the army to NSW to help fight Covid.

The Morrison Government initially briefed journalists that the offer of troops was never made, before subsequently changing the story to claim that the support was offered and rejected.

Those reports sparked a “robust discussion” between the Prime Minister’s office and the NSW Premier’s chief media adviser Sean Berry.

But the latest briefings by the Prime Minister’s office have rubbed salt into the wound according to NSW MPs.

“Gladys and Scott Morrison hate each other’s guts. They are each trying to blame each other,’’ a NSW Liberal minister said.

“It is so unhealthy. Everyone makes errors. We could sit here and blame them for the vaccines.”

Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Ray Hadley weighs in

The rising political tensions are not confined to the NSW government and the Morrison Government alone but have engulfed the entire NSW cabinet.

Senior ministers admit there has been a complete breakdown in discipline after seven weeks of lockdown and rising tensions in the NSW Liberal Party.

On Tuesday, the NSW Police Minister David Elliott and the NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller asked the NSW Premier for tougher sanctions for breaches of the public health orders.

Ms Berejiklian agreed to let the pair work up plans for an overhaul of the previous rules but initially the proposal for a 5km limit was not signed off on by NSW’s crisis cabinet on Friday afternoon.

That prompted a furious intervention by 2GB radio broadcaster Ray Hadley who took to Facebook on Friday demanding action.

“Gladys Berejiklian and Brad Hazzard have overruled tougher Covid rules put to the crisis cabinet this afternoon,’’ he wrote.

“The NSW Police Commissioner and NSW Police Minister were excluded from the meeting despite new police powers being tabled.

“Several recommendations were rejected despite an assurance from Gladys Berejiklian she would accept whatever Commissioner Mick Fuller put forward.

“An absolute disgrace.

“Brad Hazzard and Premier Berejiklian have had 6 weeks to turn the tide and failed miserably.

“They turned to Mick Fuller and have rejected his most important recommendation, a 5km travel limit across Greater Sydney.

“The state is in crisis and the man charged with digging us out of the hole, Commissioner Mick Fuller, doesn’t get invited to address the crisis meeting of cabinet.

“This may well be the rock on which the Premier will perish.”

After the Hadley spray on Facebook, the NSW Premier rang ministers at 9pm on Friday night to deliver the NSW Police Commissioner the 5 km rule he had sought.

Asked about the backroom machinations on Sunday, Mr Fuller told Sky News host Sharri Markson that he didn’t attend the NSW crisis cabinet on Friday because he was not invited.

However, the police commissioner noted that he “got what he wanted” in the end and it was his objective to improve compliance and bring down case numbers as soon as possible.