Leigh Sales makes surprise appearance and grills Dan Andrews
The Sydney-based 7.30 host accused Daniel Andrews of lacking confidence in the state’s hotel quarantine system.
The host of ABC’s flagship current affairs show has grilled Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews over the state’s snap lockdown during a surprise appearance at his daily press conference.
The Premier appeared uncomfortable at times during a tense exchange with veteran journalist Leigh Sales as she accused him of lacking confidence in Victoria’s hotel quarantine system.
The Sydney-based 7.30 host, who visited Melbourne for a friend’s birthday and got caught in lockdown, repeatedly quizzed Mr Andrews over the need for the five-day lockdown during an exchange of almost 10 minutes.
“How is it the case the government still lacks such confidence in the hotel quarantine systems and contact tracing that you currently can’t manage two or three cases a day?” Sales asked.
“If you have confidence in the system, which your own bureaucrat said was working quite well, why do you need a lockdown?”
A few people on here noticed I was at Dan Andrews' presser. FYI I'm only in Melbourne because I came for a friend's bday & got caught in lockdown. I didn't come here just for DA presser. @abc730 had an interview bid in for today he said no - attending presser next best option.
— Leigh Sales (@leighsales) February 15, 2021
But the Premier was up for the fight and shot back that Sales was making claims that were “not accurate”.
“You just put it to me that there is a lack of confidence,” Mr Andrews said.
“I am more than confident in the team we have and in the Victorian community that they can get through this.
“So with the greatest of respect, you have put a number of things to me that are not accurate.”
Victoria is in the grip of fresh lockdown after a coronavirus cluster linked to the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport quarantine hotel grew to 17.
Sales continued to grill the Premier asking why there was a need for lockdown if cases were being properly traced.
“Lockdown imposes a real cost and Victorians have already paid a big price for lockdown. Cases are actually very well traced, so why the lockdown?” she asked.
Mr Andrews said the measures were “proportionate and necessary”.
“Despite the amazing efforts of all of our contact traces and testers and lab workers and the work of so many genuine hardworking Victorians, we had a situation where at the same time as we are becoming aware of the primary case, they have already infected their close contact,” he responded.
“That is not something we’ve seen before.
“The speed at which this has moved saw our public health team make the very difficult decisions based on the best of science and the best understanding you can possibly have on any outbreak.
“This was a difficult but proportionate and necessary thing to do.”
The Premier said if Sales and others, at the end of the lockdown, thought the measures were too much then they were free to form those views.
“What I am not free to do is to ever ignore advice and have a situation where I shop around for whatever will be most popular, only then to be proven wrong and to have not one or two cases, but something much worse than that, and particularly on the cusp of the vaccine being rolled out,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews said the UK strain posed a different challenge.
“This is not the 2020 virus,” Mr Andrews said.
“This is a very different virus. If you want to look at systems that can’t handle things, have a look at Europe, have a look at so many parts of the world with … what happens when this UK strain runs.”
Sales also asked the Premier whether the state would plunge into lockdown every time there were a small number of cases.
“That’s quite an assurance to make that two to three cases a day and the system might not be able to handle it, and if that’s on the table then you might have a five-day lockdown every time,” she said.
Mr Andrews said they would always look at any positive case on its merits.
“But we will try to avoid having any statewide measures or any extra rules,” he said.
“Just like epidemiologists, public health experts and political leaders across the globe, you have to assume there are more cases out there then you know about.
“Because if you assume otherwise, and you are proven wrong, then there is no going back.
“You don’t get to go, ‘well, I just get to rewind these few weeks and make the decision officials told me to make, that I refused to make.”
Mr Andrews said he knew and appreciated “very well what Victorians have been able to achieve”.
“There is no other jurisdiction in the world that has been able to achieve what we achieved. It is a credit to the character, compassion and the absolute determination of the Victorian community,” he said.
“We know what to do and I’m grateful that we know that is exactly what Victorians are doing – coming forward to getting tested … listening to the advice and following the rules.
“And also when they are asked to make that incredibly difficult, the challenging thing to do, to stay at home for 14 days on the chance that you may have it – to do that at such high levels, it is a credit to every single Victorian.”
‘Time for a rest’: John Laws calls time on radio career
Broadcaster John Laws, 89, has announced that he will pull the plug on his extraordinary 71-year media career next month.
Tight NRL finale draws strong TV audience
The ratings for the closely-fought match between the Panthers and the Melbourne Storm were up on last year’s NRL centrepiece but were easily outstripped by the TV audience for the lopsided AFL Grand Final a week earlier.