Coronavirus Australia: Brad Hazzard fires up as Kerry Chant quizzed at lockdown inquiry

Health Minister Brad Hazzard accuses inquiry chair of preventing chief health officer Kerry Chant from attending to pandemic.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant and Health Minister Brad Hazzard are questioned at the Covid-19 inquiry on Tuesday. Picture: NSW parliament via NCA NewsWire

There is a reason why Brad Hazzard’s colleagues call him Battleship – and it’s not just because he’s getting old and greying like a Hobart-class destroyer.

Decades on the opposition leather along with years in scandal-bearing portfolios have hardened the sturdy member for Wakehurst to public shame and embarrassment, not least of all during the Ruby Princess fiasco.

But the past 18 months has clearly ratcheted up the flak this NSW Health Minister has been willing to bear, and this became abundantly clear during his cantankerous and stroppy appearance at a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday.

Volunteering himself for interrogation, it took barely a few minutes before the irascible Mr Hazzard became empurpled by the lines of questioning and all but threatened to walk out in an almighty tantrum.

“Either I get to finish the answers or I’m not going to bother,” he snapped at Labor MP Courtney Houssos, who had not actually asked him a question.

Ms Houssos and others, including Greens MP David Shoebridge, had instead been directing inquiries at the chief health officer, Kerry Chant, the hearing being one of the few opportunities to quiz the state’s Covid-maven on her advice to the NSW crisis cabinet.

One must remember that NSW parliament is not actually sitting at the moment, resulting in a dramatic reduction in grillings and queries and general account-holding that goes on when the building is open.

Instead, this has been replaced with daily press briefings, open only to journalists, and which are halted and cut off at the mood and whim of Premier Gladys Berejiklian. The result has been a government that has concentrated its decision-making within a handful of people in its crisis cabinet and, for the most part, has succeeded in avoiding difficult questions.

And this was no different during the hearing, which ran for almost 80 minutes and was frequently punctuated by Mr Hazzard’s shouting over his interlocutors, not least of all when his radar twigged a line of inquiry with the potential to embarrass the government.

Most memorable of all, however, was when it appeared Mr Shoebridge, a former litigator, had uncovered conflicting advice between Dr Chant and Ms Berejiklian concerning HSC students returning to classrooms on August 16.

Seizing on this morsel, “The Shoe” – as he is fondly known – began probing, only to be ruthlessly cut off by the agitated battleship.

“You’re the chairperson and you should stick to what you agreed to, so Dr Chant can get on with her work,” Mr Hazzard barked, his attack turning personal. “And stop carrying on like you’re running for the Senate for heaven’s sake, we know you’re running for the Senate.”