Annastacia Palaszczuk has maintained her drastic Covid lockdowns despite families being separated from loved ones dying because of them.
Former Queensland Premier will lead a panel discussion on Australia’s response to Covid on 7Featured news at 8:45 p.m. on Sunday night.
Palaszczuk said the decisions were not taken lightly and that every night she came home and wondered if she had done the right thing.
“Not everything was good, not everything was perfect, but we got through it,” he said.
Despite facing widespread criticism at the time, Palaszczuk stood by his decision to impose tough lockdown measures and close state borders.
The measure had a huge impact on families who were unable to say goodbye to their dying relatives.
“It was very difficult at the time, but I stand by the results for Queensland in the end, although I recognise it was very difficult and hard on the families,” he said.
“The end result was that we only had, tragically, seven deaths during that entire two-year period before we opened our borders, so I think the results show that it worked.”
Palaszczuk avoided commenting on what he could have done better or whether he would make the same decisions today.
Annastacia Palaszczuk has spoken out about the backlash she received for separating dying families during the Covid pandemic
Instead, he focused on lessons learned during the pandemic and said they needed better access to vaccines and masks.
“We didn’t have the masks and everything else that was needed, so we actually have domestic manufacturing, but I think we also have a stronger economy as a result of it,” he said.
‘For me, in the grips of that early time, those early stages when we first heard about this virus, I didn’t know it, I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we got there, and we got there as a nation.’
Spotlight host Michael Usher said the segment would look at “what our leaders and experts did right and wrong during the Covid pandemic.”
‘We found that it is still a very emotional topic to discuss. It’s a very honest debate,’ she stated.
‘Some will never be happy with Australia’s response to the pandemic, some think we did the right thing for the greater good and found now is the right time to discuss how some people were failed.’
The former Queensland premier implemented some of the toughest restrictions in the country and has since admitted some of those decisions have affected her.
During that pandemic, Palaszczuk’s strict restrictions were unpopular with many Australians.
It closed Queensland’s border to Sydney and Victoria residents for 250 days in 2020, before slamming it shut on two further occasions.
Mark Kilian was among those who criticized the former prime minister for her lack of compassion after she was denied a quarantine exemption to see her 80-year-old father who was dying of pancreatic cancer in a Gold Coast hospital.
Following the death of his own mother, former Labor leader Bill Shorten urged Palaszczuk to show compassion.
When the borders reopened, people were not as complimentary, with many pointing out that families had been separated, Queenslanders were unable to return home and businesses had been destroyed.
The episode ‘After Covid’ airs at 8:45 p.m. on Channel 7 and 7plus.