Coronavirus: Smug premiers eat humble pie

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Matt Taylor

Three weeks ago, when NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian noted that state border closures were undermining the national economy, she drew a barrage of flak from her more parochial interstate counterparts. Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk and Western Australia’s Mark McGowan were insufferably smug. Queensland, Ms Palaszczuk said, was “not going to be lectured to by a state that has the highest number of (COVID-19) cases in Australia”. In her schoolmarmish tone she told “NSW and Victoria, get your cases under control so we can open the borders up”. Her Deputy Premier and Health Minister, Steven Miles, was condescending: “We know Sydney can be dreary but hang in there.” Mr McGowan accused Ms Berejiklian of bullying: “NSW had the Ruby Princess — I mean, seriously? And they are trying to give us advice on our borders, seriously?” WA’s isolation was its “greatest strength”, he claimed. Businesses struggling to stay afloat and unemployed staff ardently disagree.

The Labor leaders spoke as though their states were immune from errors, amid an unpredictable pandemic where small slips trigger major repercussions. As they have in Queensland and WA.

On Tuesday, Mr Miles apologised to the partner and family of Blackwater miner Nathan Turner after the state coroner concluded the 30-year-old did not have coronavirus when he died a week ago. The circumstances had compounded the grief of Mr Turner’s loved ones, he conceded. As Michael McKenna has reported, a test conducted several hours after Mr Turner’s death produced a positive reading for COVID-19. But a second test three hours later came back negative. And the fraught confusion has become messier by Queensland Health’s handling of investigations into whether a Rockhampton nurse, who tested positive for the virus, was the source of Mr Turner’s infection. Exasperated health officials say the woman’s story “has changed so many times”. The Nurses Professional Association of Queensland claims she is the victim of a government witch hunt. The nurse sparked a crisis a fortnight ago at an aged-care home where she continued working after being tested for COVID-19.

WA is also on the back foot. It failed to act on an email warning about three sick crew on board the Al Kuwait sheep ship before it berthed in Fremantle port on May 22. Of its 48 crew, 21 have become infected and account for most of the state’s cases. As Mr McGowan conceded, the email “plainly” should have raised red flags within the WA Department of Health. The pressure and stress of the past few months, he said, might have taken its toll. Exactly — as it has in all states — which is why personal slanging matches by state leaders should have no place in the current situation. Further apologies could be in order, however, after the economic and social costs of states wallowing in isolation — against federal medical advice — emerge.