PM weighs in as Miles goes to war with Dutton over vax ban

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has taken another thinly veiled swipe at Queensland’s vaccine mandate, as the spat turns ugly between Peter Dutton and Steven Miles.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has taken another thinly veiled swipe at Queensland’s vaccine mandate, doubling down on his call for state governments to “start letting go of all of the controls on people’s lives”.

Mr Morrison has copped criticism for comments he made on Thursday, which his political opponents said sympathised with anti-vaccine extremists.

But the Prime Minister on Friday defended his comments, saying he could “not have been clearer” in his condemnation of violent protests in Victoria.

He again advocated for governments to “step back” from people’s lives after nearly two years of strict pandemic health measures.

Mr Morrison, asked if he had a gutful of anti-vaxxers, said he was the one who recommended mandatory vaccination for aged care workers.

He said he had been the one who “for many months” had told people to get the AstraZeneca jab and “wasn’t the one talking down the AstraZeneca vaccine”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in June warned young people to ignore the Prime Minister’s encouragement of the AstraZeneca vaccine and to instead wait for Pfizer.

Queensland’s then chief health officer Jeannette Young declared at the same press conference that even though the risk associated with AstraZeneca was low for any age group, “I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldn’t die.”

Queensland’s restrictions on the unvaccinated will kick in when 80 per cent of adults are double vaccinated or on December 17, whichever is sooner.

New South Wales currently also restricts the movements of the unvaccinated, though the government has stated this will ease when the 95 per cent double jab milestone is achieved.

In Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews has not yet given a date on when restrictions on the unvaccinated will be lifted.

Mr Morrison said it was “fair and reasonable” for states to put in place restrictions for the unvaccinated where there was a clear end date.

“They have to make decisions in accordance with their public health interests,” he said.

“But they’ve got to be able to, as they have done here in New South Wales, given business and Australians the clear signal that this is not something that they want to continue doing.

“And this has to come to an end and governments have to step back.”

Federal Defence Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Earlier, Defence Minister and Queensland federal MP Peter Dutton has claimed state premiers have broken a “pact” with the Australian public about living with Covid once an 80 per cent double vaccination rate is reached.

His comments sparked a fiery response from Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles, who retorted they were “very dangerous views” and Mr Morrison had “always hated” Queensland’s efforts to save lives.

Speaking to Neil Breen on 4BC on Friday morning, Mr Dutton said the Queensland Government had gone back on its promise to “live” with Covid-19 once the state hit 80 per cent double vaccinated.

His comments came after Mr Morrison yesterday called on states to relax mandatory vaccine laws.

Mr Morrison said people should be allowed to “get a cup of coffee in Brisbane” regardless of whether they have received the Covid-19 jab or not.

“I just don’t think you can say to those people, even if you disagree with them, that they can’t go to a Coles, or a restaurant, or a wedding or a funeral,” Mr Dutton said.

He said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s original agreement with Queensland was that the state would have to “live with Covid” once reaching 80 per cent double vaccinated.

“At the time of the agreement the premiers entered into they decided they weren’t going to mandate vaccinations,” he said.

“The agreement that Premier Palaszczuk signed up to was at 80 per cent we would have to enter a new phase to live with.

“And by definition, if you go for a voluntary program you are going to have a small number of people who are unvaccinated.”

He said that even if it was a small percentage, the state “can’t ostracise those people forever” and “can’t segregate them”.

“I think that’s the point the PM is making, is that we need to live in a humane society and respect people’s rights once we get past 80 per cent,” he said.

“I just don’t think you can have the inconsistency the Premier has resided over”.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles has blasted Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison’s comments. Photo: Tertius Pickard

Breen questioned Mr Dutton, stating the “freedoms” should be an “incentive” for getting vaccinated.

“Why should others be able to freeload on those who’ve done the heavy lifting and gone and got vaccinated and been proactive?” Breen said.

“The premiers formed a pact with the Australian public and they’ve agreed to that,” replied Mr Dutton.

“The medical advice that we have relied on, the Doherty, indicates that 80 per cent is the trigger point, and if it was 90 per cent, they would have provided that”

Speaking at a press conference soon after, Mr Miles took aim on Mr Dutton’s remarks.

“I am not surprised Peter Dutton is doing his best to not be seen to be undermining the Prime Minister because behind the scenes he is doing his best to undermine the Prime Minister,” he said.

Mr Miles said he wanted to be careful to not “give to much oxygen” to the “very dangerous views” expressed by Mr Morrison.

“First of all, he made that statement yesterday where he criticised Queensland, and in particular Brisbane, in Sydney where you have to be vaccinated to get a cup of coffee,” he said.

“So it is surprising, well I guess it is not surprising, that again he singles out Queensland while ignoring the fact that similar restrictions operate in his home city.”

Mr Miles said Mr Morrison has ‘always hated’ Queensland’s efforts to save lives.

“Since June, more than 1000 people have died linked to that Sydney outbreak,” he said.

“In that same time, no people have died in Brisbane. Zero.”

The stoush comes as Queensland recorded one new Covid cases overnight – a returned traveller who is fully vaccinated identified in hotel quarantine.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said that five patients with Covid had been discharged from Queensland hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s total active cases to seven.

Originally published as PM weighs in as Miles goes to war with Dutton over vax ban