Annastacia Palaszczuk backs deputy Steven Miles in Scott Morrison vaccine ‘rollout row’

Annastacia Palaszczuk has backed claims by her deputy that Scott Morrison seized on problems with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout to shift the spotlight off Canberra’s sex and rape scandals.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Jono Searle

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has backed claims by her 2IC that Scott Morrison seized on problems with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout to shift the spotlight off Canberra’s sex and rape scandals.

Her office on Monday insisted Deputy Premier Steven Miles had done no more than “call out pathetic, puny politics” by senior federal government ministers who attacked the state’s handling of the vaccine program and last week’s three-day lockdown of Greater Brisbane.

Dropping any pretext of bipartisanship, Mr Miles said the Morrison government had gone after the states over the slow rollout as a diversion to the Brittany Higgins rape affair and the controversies that followed it, including a historical rape allegation against cabinet minister Christian Porter.

“No doubt the Prime Minister will continue to use the vaccine rollout and COVID more generally to distract from the government’s other problems,” Mr Miles told reporters in Brisbane.

“That’s been a very orchestrated campaign to try to stop you talking about Brittany Higgins and rape and sexual harassment and all the things that have happened in Canberra.”

His comments plunged relations between the states and the federal government to a new low after a week of blame shifting over who was responsible for the slow vaccine rollout, and comes only days before the Prime Minister and the premiers face off at ­national cabinet on Friday.

A spokesman for Ms Palas­zczuk told The Australian Mr Miles’s comments reflected the state Labor government’s frustration with vaccine supply insecurity and Mr Morrison’s refusal to engage with its proposal to set up a central quarantine centre at Toowoomba’s Wellcamp airport.

“The Premier has one priority: keeping Queensland safe. She has demonstrated nothing but a willingness to work with the federal government co-operatively but has had her every move criticised, undermined and attacked,” he said. “All the Deputy Premier has done is call out pathetic, puny politics. Why is it OK for Peter Dutton, David Littleproud and others to attack Queensland but not OK when the Deputy Premier defends it?”

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt hit back. “In a democracy, there are always points of disagreement — but to deliberately link an alleged rape to the vaccine rollout is deeply and profoundly inappropriate and unconscionable,” he said through a spokesman. “It is an almost unthinkable statement by an Australian office holder.”

Mr Morrison would not be drawn into the row, with a government source saying: “We’re not being brought down to his level … Australians will see those comments for what they are.”

Victorian federal Liberal MP Katie Allen, a critic of the workplace culture in Parliament House, said Mr Miles “should know better” than to conflate the COVID response with the rape and sexual misconduct scandals.

“His comments are both wrong and unhelpful,” she said. “Both issues are serious, sensitive and should be above politics.”