Labor on the attack over ‘essential worker’ exemptions

Labor has come out swinging in parliament, slamming the system which allows interstate workers into Tasmania without quarantine, but Premier Peter Gutwein has stood by the current system.

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LABOR says the system used to allow interstate workers into the state without quarantine is letting local jobseekers down and potentially putting public health at risk.

As state parliament resumed after a two-month break, Opposition leader Rebecca White said the system for deciding who was an essential traveller appeared too lax.

“Fitting out pizza shops or a supermarket or fixing holes in a roof does not sound like jobs a Tasmanian can’t do,” she said.

“It’s not the state controller’s administration that’s the problem, it’s the design of the scheme itself

Labor leader Rebecca White during parliament. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Mr Gutwein said the Opposition was well aware of how the system worked.

“I have full confidence in the team that is doing this work and also in the State Controller,” he said.

“There are difficult decisions, if anyone thinks it is an easy job the state controller has, they should think again.”

Mr Gutwein said the best evidence in support of the government’s management of the state’s borders was the low number of cases in recent times.

“We are not Victoria, we are not New South Wales, we are not Queensland, we are not South Australia, we are not New Zealand. They system we have put in place has stood us in good stead.”

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said it was hard to understand how a hospitality executive was given an exemption to travel when people were being knocked back for travel to family funerals.

Mr Gutwein said the rules had been put in place on public health advice and that weddings and funerals were particularly conducive to transmission of the virus.

“Unlike the Crowne Plaza launch?” Ms O’Connor retorted.

Mr Gutwein accused the opposition parties of trying to make “easy political points”.

The Premier said he would make a statement to parliament on the quarantine arrangements and other COVID-related matters later in the day.

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