Text between feuding premiers Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gladys Berejiklian reveals border discussion attempts

A text sent by Gladys Berejiklian to Annastacia Palaszczuk has shed new light on the bitter war of words between the two premiers.

EXCLUSIVE

A leaked text message had revealed NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian did reach out to the Queensland Premier in an effort to end the border wars.

News.com.au has confirmed that despite the Queensland Premier’s claim Gladys Berejiklian “never called her” about borders, she did text on Sunday night.

“Hi Annastacia Congratulations on your election win,” the text says.

“I can imagine how difficult that was during a pandemic! Hope we can work together to get our borders open. Gladys.”

The text was sent at 8pm on Sunday evening.

But the Queensland Premier failed to reply for several days before sending a text about the State of Origin result.

On Wednesday, Ms Palaszczuk replied with the celebratory war cry “Queenslander” after her state’s victory in the rugby league game.

RELATED: Palaszczuk’s brutal text to Gladys

A recreation of the text message NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian sent to Queensland Premier Palaszczuk after her election win.

The text shows Ms Berejiklian did reach out to Ms Palaszczuk in an attempt to resolve the bitter war of words over the border restrictions.

The NSW Premier has repeatedly complained her Queensland counterpart won’t discuss the increasingly bitter topic.

“I did not hear from her until last night when she sent me a text about State of Origin,” Ms Berejiklian said on Thursday.

“I didn’t know whether to be shocked or bemused, frankly, because I’m worried about jobs and I’m worried about people not seeing their families.

“And she just rubbed in the fact that Queensland won the game; that’s fine.

“She didn’t mention borders, she didn’t mention a thanks for the congratulations.”

Gladys Berejiklian says she’s attempted to speak with Ms Palaszczuk about the border policy. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dylan Coker

Ms Palaszczuk’s office told News Corp the “premiers have not discussed borders”.

On Friday, the Queensland leader put the ball back in her NSW counterpart’s court, telling reporters: “I’m always happy to speak to Gladys, she has my phone number.

“It’s misleading for her to go and tell the media that she had phoned me when she did not phone me.

“Every New South Wales and Queensland premier has had bets and talked about the State of Origin and obviously New South Wales was a little bit upset that the mighty Maroons won.”

When pressed about the content of the text, Ms Palaszczuk shut down the topic.

“I’m not going into text messages,” she said.

Revelations the Queensland Premier responded with a gloat about the State of Origin match raised eyebrows on the southern side of the border, with many struggling to see the lighter side amid the pandemic.

2GB radio host Ben Fordham lashed out at Ms Palaszczuk, saying the text was “rude” and told her to “grow up”.

“While people in Sydney can’t see their families in Brisbane that’s the best that Annastacia could come up with — a smart-ass response about a football game,” he said.

“She’s a child and she’s looking like a brat.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk holds a doorstop with Jason Hunt. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

Ms Palaszczuk has refused to budge over the state’s border policy despite increased commitment from other leaders to open up.

The Sunshine State recorded another day of no new coronavirus cases on Friday and has now notched 52 days without a locally transmitted case being reported.

Ms Palaszczuk said she would continue to deal with the policy at the end of each month rather than weekly, despite new national cases becoming rare.

She was also pressed over the comparison with South Australia, which has not had a new case in weeks despite being open to New South Wales travellers.

“Everyone is making a bigger deal of this than needs to be,” Ms Palaszczuk told reporters.

“Let’s be practical and use commonsense here.

“Our border measures have kept Queenslanders safe.”

When the Premier was quizzed about the policy to defer the border decision to the end of the month as opposed to weekly, she refused to provide any significant detail.

“That’s what we’ve decided to do and it gives people certainty,” she said.

Last week, Queensland opened its borders to the rest of the country except for those in Victoria and Sydney.

Those in New South Wales can enter the Sunshine State so long as they haven’t been in the greater Sydney area for two weeks or more before travel.

Ms Palaszczuk referred to Clive Palmer’s failed bid in the High Court on Friday morning to prove border closures were unconstitutional as vindication for her policy.

“I have Queenslanders coming up to me all the time, and I’ve travelled a lot of this state in the last month, and everyone is saying how they feel safe because the borders were in place,” she said.

“You’ve got a High Court decision today now that actually proves that putting in place those strong border measures was constitutional.”

The Premier left the door slightly ajar for allowing Victorians into Queensland before Christmas on the condition it continues to report low case numbers.