Coronavirus: PM and Greg Hunt blast Annastacia Palaszczuk after Sunrise interview

The federal government has savaged Annastacia Palaszczuk for claiming it withheld information from Queensland.

The Queensland Premier slammed the federal government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak on Sunrise this morning.

The federal government has savaged Annastacia Palaszczuk for claiming it withheld information from Queensland that could help prevent the spread of coronavirus in Australia.

The Premier went on national TV on Friday morning to criticise the Morrison government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and for failing to give the states enough information about who has entered the country.

The Queensland premier launched a tirade against the federal Coalition during a morning TV interview on Seven’s Sunrise, saying she was “frustrated” by the federal response to the mounting health crisis. She also called on the PM to convene an urgent meeting of Premiers about the virus.

“The federal government is focusing on bringing people home, which is all well and good, but we have confirmed cases now in Australia,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

"I'm frustrated, I'm trying my hardest here, but we need a national effort to deal with this issue right now"

Queensland Premier @AnnastaciaMP slams the federal government's handling of the #coronavirus outbreak. pic.twitter.com/0VFeOzG5VN

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) January 30, 2020

“We need to make sure we are contacting people from the Hubei province and only the federal government has that information. I don’t believe we have enough senior people on the federal hook-ups.

“I think the federal government should immediately recall their cabinet and have an immediate meeting with the premiers on a phone hook-up. We need to contain this now, and we need everybody focused on this.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the state health department needed to be given information about the recent travel history of people who are visiting Queensland.

“I don’t know at the moment, in Queensland, where people from the Hubei province actually are because the Federal Government has that information,” she said. “If we don’t have the information, we cannot contain this virus.”

The premier’s broadside came after Queensland confirmed its second case of coronavirus on Thursday night. The patient, a 42-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, was travelling with a tour group of nine people that flew into Melbourne on January 22 before flying to the Gold Coast on January 27. One of her travelling companions, a 44-year-old man, has also been infected with the virus.

The remaining seven people in the tour group have been quarantined and the Queensland health department is scrambling to contact all 172 people on-board the Tigerair flight.

Responding to Ms Palaszczuk’s attack, Mr Morrison said the government’s top health official had been in contact with Queensland health Minister Steven Miles and provided full briefings.

“The Chief Medical Officer and the state health minister are in constant contact on this issue,” Mr Morrison said. “There would not be an issue the Commonwealth knows that the Queensland government does not.”

Australia has nine confirmed cases, two of them in Queensland involving Chinese nationals who travelled on Tiger Air flight TT566 from Melbourne to the Gold Coast on Monday.

They were among 172 passengers and crew who were on the flight and Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said a full list of names and contact details was provided to Queensland on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Hunt tore into the premier at a news conference on Friday as he read out a list of meeting dates reflecting “daily engagement” with Queensland.

He said Queensland was the chair of the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia committee, with state officials present at a string of recent meetings and suggested there was a communication issue between the premier and her departments.

“Queensland was part of the Joint Health Ministers and AHPPC ministerial teleconference of 25 January and only yesterday the first ministers departments, meaning the Premier’s own department, was part of the National Crisis Committee hook-up,” Mr Hunt said.

“So if that information has not been provided within the Queensland system to the Premier, I would respectfully urge the Premier to seek that advice from her own system, but everything that is available to us is available to them.”

Mr Hunt also confirmed that a quarantine centre being prepared on Christmas island would be ready over the weekend with a specialist team deployed to the island on Friday.

“I can confirm now that today the first of the AUSMAT, or Australian Medical Assistance Team, pre deployment personnel will arrive on Christmas Island,” Mr Hunt said. “I have spoken with the director of the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre this morning and he has confirmed they have a team of 24 and the first members of those will arrive today.”

He was flanked by Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy who said Australia was one of the “most forward leading countries” in terms of its response to the deadly outbreak.

“We’re one of the most forward leading countries in terms of our public health response to this outbreak,” he said.

He explained the World Health Organisation’s declaration of a public health emergency would “further increase their activity, particularly with the expert technical teams going into China, enhancing their work in research and vaccine development, exploration of potential anti-viral drugs, diagnostics and the like.”

Meanwhile, there’s no sign of illness in China’s women’s soccer team, who will remain holed up in a Brisbane hotel until Wednesday to ensure they are not carrying the virus.

The team is here for Olympic qualifying matches that have been disrupted due to the virus outbreak.

With AAP