I shouldn’t have let NRL WAGS in: Premier back-pedals

Annastacia Palaszczuk admits letting 100 NRL player family members into Qld was wrong, says 680 quarantine rooms available from Monday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk admits letting the families of NRL players into the state was a bad look. Picture: Annette Dew

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has apologised for letting a group of NRL players’ wives and girlfriends into Queensland while thousands of others are locked out of the state.

After a week of pressure over the decision to let about 100 family members of NRL players into Queensland during a ban on interstate travel, The Queensland Premier accepted it was a bad look.

“I apologise. It was not the right thing to do and it should not have happened,” she said.

“It should not have happened when we had the reduction in our hotels.”

About 3000 residents of people wanting to move to Queensland are on the waiting list to enter the state.

Ms Palaszczuk said an extra 680 quarantine rooms would be available from Monday.

It came as Ms Palaszczuk defended her concerns about unvaccinated children, saying they were “legitimate” and she hoped there could be a civil debate at national cabinet later today.

“Let’s have an educated conversation about these issues,” the Queensland premier said. “There is nothing wrong with asking decent questions about the safety of families.

“It is not about being against a national plan.”

Ms Palaszczuk said her goal was to “preserve” Queensland’s lifestyle as the state enjoys relaxed restrictions not afforded in NSW and Victoria.

Queensland has recorded a double doughnut day today, with zero new locally acquired cases and none acquired overseas.

No new Queensland cases

Ms Palaszczuk said it was “great news” after an infected truck driver spent five days on the Gold Coast while infectious.

“It is really important Queenslanders go and get vaccinated,” she said. “This is our window of opportunity before we see another issue arise here.”

A family of five who snuck home to Queensland from Melbourne have tested negative.

The family had initially refused to be tested or comply with contact tracers.

Earlier, Labor frontbencher Richard Marles has distanced himself from Ms Palaszczuk regarding the reopening of borders when vaccination rates hit the 80 per cent target, suggesting the Queensland Premier was not acting in the national interest.

Mr Marles told Nine’s Today Show: “I would be distancing myself from the comments of Annastacia, is the honest answer to that question.

“We need to be following the health advice when it comes to the impact and who we should be vaccinating and when … We don’t want to be spending an extra day in lockdown.

“It is not abandoning Annastacia. I think you can understand state premiers standing up for their states. That’s what they’re elected to do. But at the end of the day, we need a national interest here.”

CHO doesn’t want to open until all offered jab

Queensland’s chief health officer does not want to reopen the state until every eligible person has been offered the Covid-19 jab.

Dr Jeannette Young said while she was not comfortable with any preventable deaths “ it is up to individuals to choose whether they wish to protect themselves”.

“So once every single Queenslander, who is part of the vaccine rollout- which today is some 12-15 year olds and all 16 plus- once they have had that opportunity then of course we make decisions (about reopening),” she said.

“But I would not want to see the virus coming into Queensland, without mitigating factors, until that has happened.”

In 2019, Queensland Health reported 264 deaths directly related to influenza infections, or about five each week.

Asked if this was the level of fatality the government would accept before reopening, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said “we are not at that stage yet.”

“We are getting further modelling as well.”

Ms Palaszczuk accepted “there will be deaths across Australia” when the nation eventually reopens.