Gladys Berejiklian refuses to answer why Bunnings remains open amid Greater Sydney’s strict lockdown

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has passed over Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell during a grilling at her daily COVID-19 press conference. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has dodged a grilling by Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell during her daily COVID-19 update by refusing to answer his question on non-essential services remaining open.

Mr Clennell quizzed the New South Wales Premier on why stores such as Bunnings Warehouse and the Reject Shop remained open in Greater Sydney as the city suffers through what the Berejiklian government has referred to as one of the “harshest” lockdowns seen across the country.

“Why is Bunnings open? It’s not open in Queensland,” he asked Ms Berejiklian.

The Premier, however, passed over Mr Clennell, responding with, “next question”.

Mr Clennell later asked the same question to the state’s Chief Health Officer Doctor Kerry Chant, pointing out the NSW government continued to stress the strictness of the lockdown while other states – such as Victoria – imposed curfews on businesses.

“Is it your health advice to have these open or is a political decision by Gladys Berejiklian to have these open?” he asked.

Dr Chant said the latest data showed the tight lockdown was working.

“This is one of the most tight lockdowns we’ve ever had and can I just say the mobility data shows we are getting down to what Victoria did in the stage four lockdown,” she said.

“The data suggesting that most of the indexes and obviously it varies by some of the suburbs which are outliers, that we’ve got to those levels.”

Dr Young pleaded with Sydneysiders to limit their movement across the city, stressing “this is not the time for going into five or six shops”.

“I think the most important message is – can I just emphasise this – is we are dealing with one of the most challenging times that we’ve ever experienced as a nation and I would ask everyone to do their bit,” Dr Chant said.

“Now obviously from a public health perspective I can’t be clearer; please do not go out and about. If you’re able to go shopping every three days … please do.”

“The last thing our contact tracers want is that people have gone to this bakery, to this bread shop, to this butcher.”

The state saw another jump in cases on Wednesday recording 233 new local infections overnight compared to 199 cases on Tuesday.