Queensland backflips on border double standard: Scott Morrison caught in crossfire

Annastacia Palaszczuk has come under fire this morning, Wednesday, December 15, for the double standards emerging within Queensland’s tough quarantine rules for contacts of known Covid-19 cases.

This backlash comes just two days after Queensland’s tough border stance was relaxed, and as planeloads of Australians were forced into two weeks of quarantine. People were required to quarantine after they became casual contacts of a known Covid-19 case, when an infected person flew from Newcastle to Brisbane on Virgin Airways flight VA1105; then Brisbane to Townsville on Virgin Airways flights VA375, both on Monday, December 13.

Those quarantining would miss Christmas at home with families, as they were told they must quarantine for two weeks, regardless of whether they returned a negative test result or not.

However, the double standard arose as Prime Minister Scott Morrison was allowed into Queensland and not forced to quarantine for two weeks, despite being a casual contact of a known case. Morrison’s exposure occurred at a high school graduation ceremony in Sydney on Friday, December 10.

Morrison has since returned two negative Covid-19 tests, and so has been allowed to continue his pre-election re-election campaign trail around Queensland, creating a glaring double standard between those with societal clout, and those without.

Tracy Grimshaw, the host of Channel 9’s A Current Affair, tweeted about this double standard this morning, calling out the behaviour.

The PM is a casual contact,double vaxxed, two negative tests and free to enter and move around QLD. But a planeload of double vaxxed almost all casual contacts are locked in Xmas quarantine for 2 wks regardless of tests. Rules have to make sense or people will reject them.

— tracy grimshaw (@tracygrimshaw) December 14, 2021

This prompted a second look from Queensland officials, who then announced that the ruling for all passengers on infected flights to quarantine would be overturned, instead only those in the seats closest to the infected person would have to quarantine for two weeks.

BREAKING: Queensland set to release dozens of plane passengers from quarantine in time for Christmas after national backlash. But those sitting near infected passenger will remain in q. @newscomauHQ https://t.co/IBqahJLtJl

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) December 14, 2021

Tracy Grimshaw replied, “Common sense prevails”.

A number of flights coming to Queensland have been listed as exposure sites in recent days. At the time of publication, the entire list of impacted flights included:

• JQ950 – Sydney to Cairns – December 3
• JQ942 – Melbourne to Cairns – December 10
• JQ967 – Cairns to Coolangatta – December 10
• VA313 – Melbourne to Brisbane – December 11
• QF536 – Sydney to Brisbane – December 11
• VA1105 – Newcastle to Brisbane – December 13
• VA375 – Brisbane to Townsville – December 13
• JQ430 – Melbourne to Gold Coast – December 14