Coronavirus: Annastacia Palaszczuk stokes feud with Gladys Berejiklian over borders

The feud between the two premiers explodes as Qld leader lashes her NSW counterpart over border closures.

Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gladys Berejiklian.

The feud between Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gladys Berejiklian has been reignited after the Queensland premier lashed out at her NSW counterpart’s criticism of other states for closing their borders to some NSW residents.

Ms Berejiklian was clearly frustrated on Tuesday by the swift border closures announced by various states in response to the cluster of coronavirus cases in Sydney’s northern beaches.

“The various premiers have made various decisions about borders but I ask people to think about things compassionately and base it on the facts,” Ms Berejiklian said at a press conference.

“The only time that NSW has closed the border to anyone was (with) Victoria. Their case numbers were more than 140 before we took that decision, and it was subsequently and then up to 180.

“I use that fact to put things into perspective. Yes, of course, I’m concerned by what’s happening in NSW. But every response has to be proportionate to the risk.”

In a war of words that has grown throughout the pandemic, Ms Palaszczuk hit back on Wednesday, saying it was “a bit rich of NSW to start blaming Queensland” for its response.

“It was not just Queensland that took the tough measures of shutting the borders with NSW,” MS Palaszczuk said.

“The health advice of nearly every chief health officer across the country was advising their respective leaders exactly the same thing independently.”

“If there hadn’t been the cluster outbreak in the northern beaches, no one would have had to take these measures and everybody would have been seeing their family and friends over this Christmas New Year period.

“It is a bit rich for NSW to start blaming Queensland and Victoria and whatever other state and territory she want to blame.

“This has happened in NSW, it’s happened in the northern beaches, we wish them all the very best but we do not want our lifestyle compromised at this point in time.

“As soon as they get on top of that, the sooner we can get back to semi-normal as possible.”

Ms Palaszczuk also highlighted the importance of strict hotel quarantine measures for overseas passengers, which is the suspected cause of the Sydney cluster.

“We need to be absolutely strict when it comes to hotel quarantine in Queensland,” she said.

Queensland has recorded one new case of coronavirus overnight, from a traveller in hotel quarantine.

The state has gone 99 days without a diagnosed case of community transmission.

There are only 9 active cases in Queensland.

There were 13,000 COVID-19 tests carried out in the 24 hours since Tuesday morning.