Live Coronavirus Q&A: Prime Ministers of Victoria, NSW, and Queensland join ABC panel tonight to discuss Covid-19 restrictions – #qanda live | Australia News

The next question is about soccer. Why is the NRL green-light when so many people are out of work and unable to work due to coronavirus restrictions?

Palaszczuk says the NRL is a workplace.

They must meet the conditions they have presented and it is up to the NRL or the respective codes to support their plan and make sure it is met.

Andrews Says It Will Let AFL Make Its Own Decisions, But If It Can Be Done Safely, There Is A Net Benefit To The Community For Rewarding The Sport

It is a big part of the way our country operates and the comments I receive are almost universal, people want to see the return. I’m pretty sure it will be done safely.

Hamish asks Berejiklian about the disruption in his own cabinet. First answer Nick from Mandurah’s question.

I have that question today and … I’m glad we received that question today and not why thousands of people died in New South Wales.. That’s where we were headed. We knew that by looking at places abroad if we didn’t take action when we did, we literally would have had thousands of people who would have already perished.

I am grateful that we are in this position. Given the other questions posed later, I now feel that the pendulum has to change. New South Wales is in a position where we want to jump-start our economy and we are looking for the way, the surest way to do it.

Yes, but what about problems in the cabinet?

If it’s not life or death, I don’t worry about it.

A man named Merwyn in Queensland (sorry, I lost his last name) asks about former treasurer Jackie Trad’s resignation over a corruption investigation, and whether management of the pandemic will be sidelined as the government handles factional disputes.

Palaszczuk Say No She had cabinet replacements in 48 hours

The next question is from Nick Valentine in Mandurah, WA. He says that by this time next year we will have a Covid-19 virus (perhaps it is a strong one), and the number of victims will be 10 times greater than the number of lives lost to Covid-19 in Australia.

Do the prime ministers believe that it was worth ruining our economy over COVID-19?

Andrews is the first. He says it was a difficult decision, and no one made the decisions lightly, but that if the virus had gotten away from them, it would have been “deadly.”

It also does very significant economic damage if it runs wild. There are huge economic and health challenges across Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. This is a health challenge first and the best economy is to fix the health problem and then move on to repair the inevitable damage, life-saving damage but it takes work.

He says the choice was between repairing the economic damage and killing tens of thousands of people.

Palaszczuk He says people’s lives have been turned upside down, but “the initial model we had was if we didn’t crush the sidewalk, in Queensland there could be 37,000 people who lost their lives. “

You just have to look at what is happening in the United States. Thank God we live in Australia and we all work together at the National Cabinet level. If that hadn’t happened, I don’t know where we would be. We have collectively worked together and put people first.

She says the focus now is on getting people back to work.

Berejiklian says he would prefer to maintain a one-size-fits-all approach to restrictions in NSW to “avoid confusion.”

The comments we receive from our regional communities is that while they depend on tourism to improve their economy, they are very cautious in welcoming people to their communities because they are aware that there may be free COVID-19, but that is not always it is so. the case.

She says Victoria and NSW decided not to close their borders because people living in those border communities, like Albury-Wodonga, don’t see the distinction between states, so imposing a hard border would not work.

Neither NSW nor Victoria are allowing regional travel at this stage. They said they will monitor and allow that trip when they are comfortable.

Rowing Callan from Ayr in North Queensland has a question for Palaszczuk.

How is it fair that apart from a small group in Cairns, no locally acquired infections have been known north of the Fraser coast, yet we, the inhabitants of North Queensland, are subject to the same draconian-type restrictions. than the southeast? … When can we go back to business?

Palaszczuk says that the lack of known cases does not mean that there is no risk in North Queensland.

We have 2,000 people still quarantined across Queensland. Which means they have the potential to have the virus and spread it. We need to be very vigilant and make sure that we can take drastic action as much as possible.

She says that the opening of those regions will depend on the number of people who are still quarantined in those areas.

Annastacia Palaszczuk He is asked when the Queensland border will reopen. She says that depends on community broadcast rates in NSW and Victoria.

But I have said very clearly that we will review our borders at the end of each month and take it from there and see how it goes. Hopefully by June and July we can have people traveling through Queensland.

But it could be a little longer before we see our southerners return to Queensland. We love you so much. We want you to come to Queensland, but not right now.

The following questions are from Catherine Kopec in Burwood, Victoria, on the outbreak in Cedar Meats.

What will you do to make sure that employees, including teachers, are safe to go to work? What will you do to ensure that employers follow strict guidelines?

Andrews says “we’ll see more outbreaks” and that the key to managing them was to do a lot of testing and quickly locate contacts.

When asked why the government took so long to publicly identify Cedar Meats as the site of an outbreak, Andrews says deciding to identify a workplace as the site of an outbreak is a matter for the public health team.

He said there would be “learnings all the time” in terms of how to properly manage localized outbreaks. He praises both the public health team and the slaughterhouse workers.

The next question is about the Newmarch House nursing home. By allowing sick residents to stay out of the hospital and into the nursing home, the interrogator says the risk of healthy residents at home has increased.

How does a sick person’s desire to stay out of the hospital override the rights of those who are well and at risk of contracting the virus and even dying?

Berejiklian says it is a “troublesome moral and ethical issue.”

It would be a mistake for politicians to make those decisions. The best health advice we have is that it is up to individual residents and their families what their preference is for their treatment and their future.

She says the elderly care regulator stepped in to monitor the situation, and repeats that it would be inappropriate for politicians or the national cabinet to step in or override health councils.

The health council says to assess the person’s condition and also to evaluate their choice of what their preference is given their condition. It is not a hard and fast rule for everyone … We have had a number of cases in New South Wales where there have been examples where things have been handled extremely well and others where they have not been handled. good.

She said the expectation is that everyone who runs a nursing home assumes they are going to have a Covid-19 outbreak and have a plan in place.

To the ruby ​​princess. Olympia Kwitowsi from Salisbury in Queensland asks Berejiklian why people should be listening to her, since her government let that cruise ship in.

Berejiklian says Olympia should ask her prime minister, McDonald reminds her that 10% of coronavirus cases in Australia come from Ruby Princess.

She acknowledges this and says she does not want to go through the commission of inquiry or the police investigation.

This answer is a little messy. Berejiklian continues to repeat that “thirteen of 14 landings were successful in New South Wales.”

A shame on the 14th was Princess Ruby.

I will not promise that there will be no more mistakes. It may be in my state and maybe somewhere else, but we have to get up and move on. A pandemic without errors is impossible, it would be miraculous. We learn and move forward, but I cannot promise that there will be no other mistakes in the future. We need to make sure we have social distancing and pinpointing to protect our citizens as much as possible.

Berejiklian is asked why she was sure that students could safely return to school in New South Wales starting this week.

She said the advice was that the greatest risk was transmission between teachers, and NSW had spent weeks obtaining PPE and sanitary equipment from schools.

And just to demonstrate our readiness, we extend all of our cleaning contracts. Each school has extra cleaning during the day. Additional provisions established to mitigate risk for anyone.

The next question is from Tori hill in Malvern, Victoria. Why can’t children in Victoria go back to school?

Andrews can’t really say why the rules are different when returning to school in Victoria than in NSW or other states, but he says at the end of the term, “I think most states will end up in the same place.”

He says “each state is in a different position.”

We took the position and the opinion that it just wasn’t good to have a million students coming and going from school, hundreds of thousands of teachers and parents coming and going from school every day.

McDonald asks Andrews to tell parents when they could expect their children to return to schools in Victoria, so they can plan. Andrews says he will not announce that in questions and answers.

We will have an announcement soon. As important as this program is, we will make announcements for all Victorians at the appropriate time. They were very close. There are details that need to be worked out about the nature of that staggered return. We can confirm tonight that we will have our children learning face to face before the end of the second trimester.

The next question is about the protests that took place yesterday in Melbourne, in which 10 people were arrested (out of a crowd of about 250).

Andrews says it was an “ugly scene” and while he supports peaceful protest, it was not that.

If it is not peaceful, it is not an adequate legitimate protest. We saw wounded police officers. That is something we can never accept.

This pandemic is very real. If you don’t think the Australian experience is something you should trust, if you need to look further, turn on your TV and take a look at what’s going on in Europe and America. This is very serious. If it escapes you, thousands of people will die.

Berejiklian:

I think the conclusion is to the point of Dan, if you are protesting you have to exercise social distancing. I have no problem with what people do when they leave the house as long as they are within the rules. No matter what you are doing, even if you have a picnic with your best friend, keep the 1.5m.

Andrews responds by speaking of Victoria’s testing fee, which Hamish says was not the question.

Andrews says he was not happy to see images of various people in Victoria in shopping malls possibly buying things they didn’t need (how do you know, Dan?).

He says we only have one chance to do this right and if I had to, I would tighten the restrictions again.

Andrews:

If I were to get advice from our chief of health … that we no longer had control, things had reached a point where we were going to see a significant increase in cases and our hospital system was overflowing, then of course we would have to reintroduce some of these sanctions. That is in our own hands in many ways. If people change their behavior but keep up with the rule changes we are making, follow the rules and keep getting tested, we will have many more options in June and we can gradually open up.

The first question is from Kirsten Armstrong in Maroubra, NSW. Basically it is a dixer.

We have seen images over the weekend of people in shopping malls who apparently did not know that social distancing is still important. With significant outbreaks in New South Wales and Victoria, with most states experiencing a resurgence of new cases this week, it seems almost inevitable that we will have some sort of resurgence of the disease in the coming months. What is your trigger, what is your threshold to reintroduce restrictions that you are lifting this week?

Gladys Berejiklian answer first, because it is your state.

I will summarize your answer, because it is long and none of it is new. She says she expects case numbers to increase as she lifts some restrictions, cases have dropped significantly since March, it’s about finding a “healthy balance,” the situation will be monitored to determine what is manageable in the coming weeks.

Are you ready to go back to closing if the numbers increase, Hamish asks?

Obviously if there are major outbreaks, but we hope that is not the case.

So we have premier NSW Gladys Berejiklian in the room with the host Hamish McDonald and victorian prime minister Daniel Andrews and the Queensland Prime Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk in an elegant ABC version of Zoom.