Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews lashes out at Queensland government over virus claims
Karen Andrews #KarenAndrews
Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews has lashed out at Queensland, saying the Premier’s hit job against the federal government over the handling of the pandemic is just a “smokescreen” to hide her own failings.
Ms Andrews on Wednesday afternoon hit back at accusations made by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk over the recent vaccine backflip and the lack of purpose-built quarantine facilities.
Ms Palaszczuk also took a swipe at the government for allowing unvaccinated people into the country, which is heightening the risk of community transmission.
The federal Home Affairs Minister said the majority of travellers coming into the country are returned Australian and permanent residents and Queensland’s most recent outbreak is a fault of its own for not having workers within health facilities fully vaccinated.
“Clearly what Annastacia Palaszczuk is doing is making sure that she is doing as much as she possibly can to ensure she puts up a smokescreen to hide the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of quarantine that is administered and managed by the Queensland Government,” Ms Andrews said in a press conference at the Gold Coast.
“There is also the failure of Premier Palaszczuk and her deputy premier Stephen Miles to make sure that health workers in high-risk areas are properly vaccinated and that has led to a young worker being infected with Covid-19.”
Queensland’s lockdown has been sparked by an unvaccinated hospital clerical worker acquiring the virus while on shift.
Mr Miles publicly claimed the infected worker caught the virus from a returned traveller who had made repeated trips to and from Australia and Indonesia.
Ms Andrews claims Mr Miles is misrepresenting the issue and is inflating returned international figures.
“There has been some misrepresentation of ABS, Australian Bureau of Statistics data,” Ms Andrews said.
“Now, let‘s be clear, some of the permanent residents who are coming back to Australia are also dual citizens and could well be, and in fact some are, known to be travelling on foreign passports.”
Ms Andrews also hit back at claims the sunshine state was running out of Pfizer vaccines, noting by the end of July, Queensland would have access to 127,000 jabs a week.
“It is up to the Palaszczuk Government to do all that it can to make sure that the people are properly vaccinated and quite frankly, they need to focus on their health workers,” she said.
Queensland’s chief health officer on Wednesday morning said the health advice is still that people under 40 should hold out for the Pfizer vaccine, despite the federal government now allowing younger people to sign up for the AstraZeneca shot.
Ms Andrews clarified the health advice is still the same, but people who wish to get the shot can get it after they have had a discussion with their GP.
“People need to take the advice of their doctor and that is what the prime minister was very clear about,” she said.
“That is a conversation that individuals need to have with their own doctor and take their advice.
“We are saying you need to speak to your doctor, you need to make an informed decision and if you consent you wish to take the AstraZeneca vaccination.”