QLD border: Reason behind Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s emotional press conference

After days of criticism over her harsh border policy – which has been slammed for its double standards and blamed for keeping families apart – Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk broke down during a press conference this morning. Following repeated questions over the policy – which saw the leader level an accusation of “bullying” against Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday – Ms Palaszczuk’s composure finally appeared to crumble.
“These are difficult decisions and they’re heartbreaking. I’m human just like everyone else. These issues hurt me deeply,” she told reporters.
“They hurt me deeply because during this pandemic I have lost loved ones as well. I know exactly what people are going through, OK?”
While Ms Palaszczuk, who for weeks has remained firm that her border stance would not be swayed despite the barrage of critics, didn’t elaborate this morning, the emotional moment was the closest she has come to publicly talking about the loss of her grandmother, Beryl Erskine, in June.
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The Queensland Premier has long refused to talk about her 95-year-old nanna’s death, In Queenslandreports, which occurred on June 21. The only public acknowledgment of her passing was a short funeral notice, which listed Ms Palaszczuk and her father, Henry, among the surviving family members.
Ms Palaszczuk’s reference to her personal experience with these “heartbreaking” issues today wasn’t the first time, though, that she’d mentioned the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on her personally.
Three days before her grandmother died, she told parliament she had personal experience with “how difficult and how heartbreaking these times have been”.
“My nanna has had very limited contact with her immediate family and extended family during most of this year during the COVID pandemic,” Ms Palaszczuk said at the time.
“Like many other Queensland families, my sister has had the duty of putting together a family roster to put in place the times at which our family can go and visit her. This has been very hard and stressful on my grandmother and I know it has been very stressful on a lot of other elderly people who are in aged care homes.”
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It was a question over comments made by Federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann regarding Ms Palaszczuk – having called her “cold-hearted, harsh and nasty” – that broke her composure this morning.
Mr Cormann joined the PM and other senior federal government figures who have questioned Ms Palaszczuk’s “compassion” and her “double standards” when it comes to who’s allowed to enter Queensland.
Outrage hit fever pitch yesterday, when Queensland health officials refused to allow Canberra woman Sarah Caisip, 26, out of hotel quarantine to attend her father’s funeral in Brisbane.
After pressure from Mr Morrison, she was granted permission to see her father in his coffin but under police guard and without any family present.