Annastacia Palaszczuk has hit back at the NSW Premier, saying her criticisms of her were “disappointing” and “simply a diversion”.
The Queensland Premier has slammed her NSW counterpart for trying to play politics once again over the borders, saying Gladys Berejiklian has “enough of her own issues to deal with”.
Speaking on Nine's Today show on Wednesday morning, the NSW Premier said she was frustrated by her state being lumped in with Victoria for the last few months by her Queensland counterpart.
Ms Palaszczuk is expected to receive advice from the Queensland chief health officer this week as to whether Queensland will open its borders to NSW from next Monday.
Queensland’s chief health officer is this week deciding whether the border to NSW will open from November 1, with a decision set to be made on Friday, on the eve of the Queensland election.
“What they’re saying is essentially they’ll open the borders without taking the medical advice,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“I have the courage to stand up for what is right, I have the courage to keep Queenslanders safe.
“It’s disappointing to see the NSW Premier try to be political at this time when she has enough of her own issues to deal with.
“This is simply a diversion from what is happening with herself down in NSW.”
Earlier, Ms Berejiklian said she was becoming increasingly frustrated by being “lumped in” with Victoria when it comes to Queensland's perception of her state's COVID-19 risk.
Ms Berejiklian said she had a “great working relationship” with Ms Frecklington and that they spoke as recently as yesterday.
“She feels strongly about keeping jobs and getting tourism up and running,” she said.
“I know if she was elected premier she would open the border … She would have done it months ago because that’s the way Deb and the LNP are because they know it is important to control the virus and keep the jobs and economy going because in six months’ time when JobKeeper isn’t there anymore, we don’t want to see literally hundreds of thousands of Australians join the job queue.”
Ms Berejiklian said Ms Frecklington would follow NSW’s lead in getting jobs back and rebuilding a “thriving economy”.
"We’re allowing our citizens as much freedom as possible in a COVID-safe way,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“You can’t compare NSW to what Victoria’s been through. That’s why the Queensland (border) completely lacks ration, it doesn’t make sense. There is no reason why the Queensland border is there.
“I don’t think anywhere on the planet would be able to meet the 28-day benchmark (Queensland) gave us which I’ve never heard of.”
Follow our liveblog below for updates from the Queensland election campaign.
Annastacia Palaszczuk and Deb Frecklington are on Wednesday preparing to go head to head at the People's Forum this afternoon, as the race to ballot box reaches the final turn.
The Sky News and Courier Mail-led forum will have both leaders take questions from undecided voters live at 4pm.
It comes three days before election day, however as of 3pm on Tuesday, more than 850,000 voters had already cast their ballot.
We'll be liveblogging the debate throughout the afternoon.
Annastacia Palaszczuk has ordered Clive Palmer to stop scaring the elderly people of Queenslanders with his "scare campaign."
Speaking to reporters from Ipswich on Wednesday, Ms Palaszczuk said the mining magnate and United Australia Party founder was not acting in the Queensland way by continuing to perpetuate the anti-Labor "death tax" campaign.
"It's not right to scare people with misinformation when it's simply not true," she said.
"Just stop it.
"We know that Deb (Frecklington) and Clive Palmer are working hand in glove."
She took the opportunity to once again ask Queenslanders to help her win a majority government, saying she's got "everyone against me."
Queensland has recorded two new COVID-19 cases, the Health Minister has confirmed.
Both cases were acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.
"It continues to be one of the most important elements of our activity to stop COVID from entering our community," Steven Miles said at a press conference this morning.
There are five active cases in the state.
Wednesday, 28 October – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) October 27, 2020
• 2 new confirmed cases
• 5 active cases
• 1,169 total confirmed cases
• 1,224,099 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,157 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/ueeZo8KbUX
Deb Frecklington has once again ruled out doing no deals, should the LNP fail to win a majority government.
She's starting the day in Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast, where she's pledging to replace a "dangerous" roundabout used by 40,000 cars a day with traffic lights.
Ms Frecklignton said the upgrade was on top of her party's plan to build a second M1, saying Labor had been exposed for "hoax and phoney" over their own announcement.
According to her, Treasurer Cameron Dick "announced he's ripping off people of the Gold Coast" with his costings released yesterday.
"The fake and phoney is there for all to see," she told reporters.
The LNP are yet to release their costings.
They said this election would get nasty, and with only four days to go until Queenslanders head to the polls, Twitter is heating up with assaults on either sides.
In one of his favourite Twitter moves, Queensland's Deputy Premier Steven Miles has big good morning to everyone, bar Deb Frecklington.
Good morning to everyone except @DebFrecklington who still won’t tell Queenslanders who she’ll sack. #QLDvotes #qldpol
— Steven Miles (@StevenJMiles) October 27, 2020
It follows some back-and-forth from last night, which saw the official LNP Queensland Twitter "leak" Mr Miles' "search history", to which he of course responded with his own take on the meme.
Someone leaked @DebFrecklington’s search history! #qldpol #QLDvotes pic.twitter.com/WrcNK97Az0
— Steven Miles (@StevenJMiles) October 27, 2020
A review of trans healthcare for young Aussies has been announced in the same week one state paused the use of puberty blockers for children.
Pausing puberty blockers is based on “science and concern”, not ideology, the Queensland Health Minister says.
One Aussie state has put a temporary hold on children accessing puberty blockers after a child considered too young to take them was given access.