Premier lashed for ‘cruel and petty’ rules

Australia's leaders engaged in a bitter war of words again on Thursday as the nation grappled with new coronavirus cases and potential border closures.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was in the firing line as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian lashed their political colleague for her strong stance on keeping the NSW-Queensland border shut.

NSW recorded 12 new cases of coronavirus today and broke its 12 day streak of no community transmission.

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Queensland Health, supported by the state government, requires 28 days of no community transmission in NSW for the state border to be reopened.

Following the new cases found in NSW on Wednesday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her deputy Steven Miles gave their southern neighbour 48 hours to trace the where the mystery cases had come from.

Ms Berejiklian didn't mince words on Thursday morning as she sent a message to NSW's contact tracers.

"Just continue to do your jobs well, please ignore those artificial deadlines other governments are imposing on you," the premier said.

Ms Berejiklian said she was perplexed at the 48-hour window Queensland had given NSW to figure out where its new coronavirus cases had come from, labelling it "illogical".

"The Queensland government seems to be making up rules as they go along," she said.

"Does that mean every time there's a community transmission with an unknown source anywhere in the country that you're going to shut your border down again? Is that how little faith you have in the health systems?"

"At the end of the day we're Australians: people have basic needs, people have basic aspirations and people want hope for the future."

But the strongest takedown came from NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, who asked to issue a final message to the Queensland premier in Thursday morning's press conference.

"As health minister here in NSW, I'm over it," he told reporters.

"I've got to say I think Premier Palaszczuk is being political, she is being cruel. It's time this pettiness is put aside and we move forward.

"As health minister I am constantly having requests from people in NSW who are in some very sad situations who want to get across the border to reunite with families.

"The range of circumstances that families need to gather together to contemplate, to care about, give each other care and support, is just enormous."

The prime minister also weighed in and said Queensland's aviation and tourism industries had been decimated by the ongoing restrictions.

"Is she for jobs or not?" Mr Morrison asked 2GB on Thursday morning, questioning the Queensland premier's pledge to keep borders shut ahead of the October 31 state election.

"The other day she was saying she was all for jobs but being all for jobs means you've got to balance the risks that you face like New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian is.

"They're managing to basically keep cases to an incredibly low level, they're doing a great job with their testing and tracing regime … dealing with outbreaks, getting New South Wales open. "Queensland can do the same thing.

"I want to see people back in jobs … the number of people who have come back in to jobs in New South Wales since we hit the pit of that COVID-recession is a 70 per cent increase. In Queensland, it's 44 per cent."

Ms Palaszczuk, who on Thursday admitted she had not spoken with Ms Berejiklian for three weeks, said she was not "ruling out" any decisions on borders yet.

"I'm always happy to speak to (Ms Berejiklian), she hasn't made an effort to contact me, I'm more than happy (to have her contact me)," she said.

"If the New South Wales Premier is on high alert about those cases, I'm on high alert.

"We are not ruling out anything at the moment. There's another 24 hours for them to look at where those cases came from.

"We hope NSW gets on top of those cases very quickly."

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles also jumped to the defence of his state today and turned the criticism back on Ms Berejiklian.

"The premier of NSW can choose to reject that health advice but it's that health advice that has kept Queensland and Queenslanders safe," he said.

"I also note that the premier of NSW … said that she was very concerned about the level of community transmission. So if she is concerned about the situation in NSW well of course so are we."

But it isn't just their NSW neighbours that the Queensland government is copping attacks from.

With just a few weeks to go to the Queensland election, the state's Liberal National Party - who are hoping to win on October 31 - are also using the shut border in their attacks.

Opposition leader Deb Frecklington, who hopes to take the top job from Ms Palaszczuk later this month, has also asked for some "common sense" on the borders.

But few Queensland politicians attack the Labor Party as much as Jarrod Bleijie, the state's shadow education and industrial relations minister.

Originally published as Premier lashed for 'cruel and petty' rules