Cruelty in clampdown state as dozens of families left in distress

Queensland officials have rejected dozens of requests from the PM to help NSW families see dying loved ones.

Sarah Caisip, left, with her father Bernard, sister Isabel and mother Myrna.

Queensland officials have rejected dozens of requests from the commonwealth and Scott Morrison to help distressed NSW families, including denying a mercy plea to allow a mother and father to visit their dying son’s bedside while his life support was turned off.

An emotional Prime Minister revealed late on Thursday he had raised more than 40 cases with state and territory leaders regarding travel exemptions on compassionate grounds, after the Palaszczuk government refused to allow a 26-year-old woman from COVID-free ACT, Sarah Caisip, to leave hotel quarantine in Brisbane to attend her father’s funeral.

The stand-off reignited the nation’s border saga, with the Queensland Premier accusing Mr Morrison in state parliament of bullying her over her strict border controls. She later approved an eleventh-hour compromise that saw the grieving nursing graduate escorted from her hotel room by police in a government car, wearing full personal protective equipment and face shield, and taken to view her father’s body in private.

The Queensland government denied Ms Caisip’s request despite it allowing AFL officials and wives of players into a Queensland bubble and celebrities such as actor Tom Hanks to self-quarantine in a resort as he returns to the Gold Coast to complete a film.

Mr Morrison said it “must have been the most horrible of days” for Ms Caisip. He lamented his inability to move Ms Palaszczuk and revealed it “fills my heart with sadness”. “I’ve dealt with the Queensland Premier on other issues,” the Prime Minister told Sky News. “Sadly, today I didn’t have the influence that I would have hoped to have.”

The Australian can reveal that Mr Morrison, his office and Health Minister Greg Hunt have appealed unsuccessfully on dozens of emergency medical cases to the Palaszczuk government on behalf of families seeking to be with loved ones across the border.

In one of the most tragic cases, a mother and father living in NSW applied for an exemption to visit their son in Queensland after he had a series of strokes. They had hoped to hold his hand when his life support was switched off, but the case was not resolved in time and they could not be by his side.

Mr Morrison’s impassioned plea for Ms Palaszczuk to grant Ms Caisip an exemption on compassionate grounds was echoed on Thursday by Labor ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Mr Hunt. The request was denied and strongly defended by Ms Palaszczuk, who goes to a state election on October 31.

Sarah Caisip arrives to see her father’s body at MountGravatt Cemetery in Brisbane on Thursday. Picture: Annette Dew

“I will not be bullied nor will I be intimidated by the Prime Minister of this country who contacted me this morning and who I made (it) very clear to, the fact that it is not my decision,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “It is the Chief Health Officer’s decision to make.”

Ms Caisip will not be allowed physical contact with her mother or 11-year-old sister until she has completed two weeks in quarantine. She has eight days to go.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she had given exemptions to people in the entertainment and film industry because “that is bringing a lot of money into this state”, and defended her decision to deny Ms Caisip an exemption.

Dr Young declared funerals a “very, very high risk for transmission of the virus”.

“I have always been very, very careful in making sure that anybody at a higher risk of having COVID-19, does not attend a funeral,” she said. “Those are people who come from hot spots, interstate or of course from overseas”.

Canberra, where Ms Caisip lives, has not recorded a coronavirus case in more than 60 days and Queensland’s decision to forbid Ms Caisip from attending her father’s funeral flies in the face of health advice featured on its Health Department website.

“Hotspots are places in Australia where health officials have found a lot of people with COVID-19,” it says.

Dr Young said Canberrans often travelled to Batemans Bay, which had been the site of an outbreak in July. However, the cluster never resulted in community transmission in the capital.

Mr Morrison struggled to talk at times when reflecting on his father’s death this year as he revealed he had called Ms Palaszczuk on Thursday to appeal for an exemption. “This isn’t about the Premier of Queensland and me or anyone else … surely, in the midst of all of this, in COVID, and everything that everyone’s going through. Surely just this once. This can be done,” he told 2GB.

Myrna and Isobel Prendergast, centre, at the funeral of Bernard Prendergast in Brisbane on Thursday. Picture: Glenn Hunt

State Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington seized on the decision to let celebrities and AFL players into the state and defended Mr Morrison for appealing to Ms Palaszczuk. “Sarah is a Queenslander. She is one of us. Sarah is not an AFL star. She is not an AFL exec. She is not Tom Hanks. She is not a movie star,” she said. “When someone like the Prime Minister of Australia appeals to you as Premier, to your leadership for compassion — that’s not bullying.”

A letter from Ms Caisip to Ms Palaszczuk, tabled in state parliament by the LNP, said: “Dear Premier, my dad is dead and you made me fight to see him, but it was too late, and now you won’t let me go to his funeral, or see my devastated 11-year-old sister.”

Ms Palaszczuk said it was “disgusting” the LNP would raise a personal case in parliament, even though the LNP said it had been asked to by Ms Caisip.

Queensland and Western Australia were the two main holdouts at last week’s national cabinet when state and territory leaders failed to reach a consensus on consistent standards for lifting borders by Christmas.

Under Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly’s proposal, a metropolitan area would be classified a hotspot when there were 30 locally acquired cases over three days.

Dr Young said on Thursday anyone could still come to Queensland if they wished to see a dying relative as she doubled down on her decision not to provide Ms Caisip with an exemption. “I can’t prevent every single death, but those I can prevent ... I make no apologies,” she said.

The Australian can reveal a number of further cases where border restrictions caused harm to individuals including a man from NSW who was to receive radiation treatment for an aggressive cancer and forced to quarantine in Queensland and stay alone in hotel isolation for six weeks while being treated and immunosuppressed. A mother and father were initially denied entry to Queensland to stay with their daughter who was transferred to a Gold Coast hospital for emergency spinal surgery.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton attacked Ms Palaszczuk for her hardline stance, saying people were suffering because of her “pig-headed” border policies.