Tasmanian political leaders attack Prime Minister over ‘irresponsible and reckless’ statement

The Prime Minister has been called “irresponsible” for his comments about a coronavirus-infected healthcare worker as officials deny there is a communication problem between the state and federal governments.

TASMANIAN officials have again been forced to respond to revelations made publicly by their federal counterparts about the coronavirus outbreak in the state’s North-West.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Brian Carlton on Triple M on Friday morning that a health worker had not been truthful about his movements as part of the contact tracing process.

Mr Morrison was speaking about a case on the North-West Coast involving a worker who had spent time at three separate aged care homes.

“Someone down there was not telling the truth to contact tracers about who have they been in contact with,” Mr Morrison said. “That puts people at risk.”

It is the second time this week that national authorities have made revelations about Tasmanian matters, after Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told New Zealand counterparts the outbreak was due to an illegal dinner party of health workers.

On that occasion, Premier Peter Gutwein said Prof Murphy had been “commenting on a rumour” and that contact tracing had not identified a dinner party.

Premier Peter Gutwein arriving for one of his daily COVID-19 updates. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

On Friday, Mr Gutwein said he would not comment on the Prime Minister’s statement but denied there was a communication problem between state and federal governments.

Mr Gutwein said he had discussed the case with Mr Morrison on Thursday night but said due process needed to be followed as investigations continued.

Director of Public Health Mark Veitch said Tasmanian health authorities had not provided specific advice to the Prime Minister on the matter but officials did learn on Wednesday night the worker had been sick earlier in April than first advised.

“We then threw the tracing net wider and that’s when it came up that there could be a small risk of infection in the aged care sector,” Dr Veitch said.

Mr Gutwein said the steps that have occurred during the outbreak would “bear inspection”.

“We will take the steps necessary and at the end of it, we will have a conclusion and then we will provide that conclusion and be public about it,” he said.

Mr Gutwein later said: “Let’s be absolutely clear of what the facts are before jumping to conclusions.”

Labor leader Rebecca White described the Prime Minister’s comments as irresponsible.

“In the same time we’ve had the Chief Medical Officer come out making statements based on a rumour, now the Prime Minister has in the same week,” she said.

“It was incredibly irresponsible and reckless of the Prime Minister to make that statement this morning and to single out a single person, a healthcare worker, to blame for the outbreak there and the incidences that we’re seeing in aged care facilities when that’s not been proven.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said it was insensitive to discuss unsubstantiated information on commercial radio while an investigation was underway.

“It’s the second time this week the Prime Minister has stumbled into state affairs – first on schools and now this,” she said.

“Mr Morrison should stick to areas for which he’s responsible or where he can really be helpful, such as working with the Gutwein Government to provide more relief to residential tenants during the COVID emergency.

“We’ve said it before, the Prime Minister needs to butt out of state issues. He’s not helping.”

The Prime Minister’s office was contacted for comment.