Kerry Chant urged ‘consistent’ lockdown restrictions across all of Sydney, email reveals

The NSW government imposed harsh lockdown restrictions on the poorest areas of Sydney’s west and south-west despite Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant advising that the rules should be implemented consistently across Greater Sydney.

Emails sent between health officials and Health Minister Brad Hazzard in mid-August have revealed Dr Chant recommended that “consistent measures” be implemented across all of Sydney.

Then Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant and Health Minister Brad Hazzard during the lockdown in July.Credit: Nick Moir

Despite the health advice, the extended lockdown left 12 local government areas under restrictions that were far tougher than other parts of Sydney, outraging community leaders who declared the handling of the Delta outbreak had left the city divided.

“Implement consistent measures across greater metropolitan Sydney with outdoor masks, consistent 5km rule and authorised workers only,” Dr Chant wrote in the email of recommendations on August 14.

That day, the government restricted Greater Sydney residents to travel within five kilometres of their local government area (LGA) border, while residents in south-western and western Sydney hotspots were restricted to five kilometres from their house.

The August email is among documents released under a parliamentary order highlighting health advice that informed policy decisions during the extended lockdown, which began on June 26.

Former premier Gladys Berejiklian repeatedly said during the outbreak that all decisions were based on “health advice”, some of which have been revealed for the first time through the order of the NSW upper house.

Labor has seized on the advice, which it has consistently called for as it prepares for western Sydney to be the battleground for the 2023 general election.

The four-month lockdown was triggered by an international air crew infecting a Bondi limousine driver, who tested positive on June 16. The infection breach saw the entire state plunged into lockdown, daily case numbers soar above 1500 and hospitals becoming overwhelmed.

According to the internal correspondence, Dr Chant recommended in July that NSW adopt restrictions equivalent to the strict “stage 4″ approach adopted in Victoria’s 2020 lockdown. They included five-kilometre travel limits, masks in all indoor and outdoor settings, the closure of retail and a curfew of 8pm.

“Dear Minister, In summary, recommend stage 4 restriction approach outlined in Victoria with the exception of permitting takeaway food,” Dr Chant wrote in the July 13 email.

The email followed modelling produced by the Burnet Institute for the government one day prior, which concluded Victoria’s stage 4 settings offered NSW the best chance of containing a Delta variant outbreak.

While some of the stricter measures were introduced one week later, some took far longer to be implemented.

As premier, Ms Berejiklian was at pains to distance herself from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and was often critical of his handling of the pandemic.

Other measures Dr Chant suggested in emails to the Health Minister included a curfew, which she recommended on July 29, saying it should be considered “for the messaging effect as we need to signal the absolute urgency of the current situation with strong compliance presence”.

A 9pm curfew and mandatory outdoor mask-wearing were both introduced on August 23 but only in the 12 LGAs of concern where COVID-19 cases were concentrated: Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield and parts of Penrith.

A NSW government spokesman said the role of the former crisis cabinet, now the COVID and Economic Recovery Committee, is to consider advice on a range of matters including health risk, economic implications, enforcement limitations and technological capability.

“We are by no means out of the woods with COVID, but the decisions taken by the NSW Government to date have helped keep the community safe, maintain public health, ensure our hospital system continues to operate effectively, keep businesses in business and people in jobs,” the spokesman said.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said the documents released by the Parliament suggested the government had not followed health advice and in so doing had unfairly impacted residents and businesses in Sydney’s most disadvantaged areas.

“These revelations show they ignored health advice and left Sydney’s west and south-west under tougher restrictions when it is clear consistency should have been applied across the whole of Greater Sydney,” he said.

“Some of the harshest restrictions the country has seen were imposed on western Sydney communities. The government with Dominic Perrottet front and centre split Sydney in two, when there should not have been a divide.”

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