Karl fires up on Deputy Premier: "There's no playbook"
John Barilaro, the NSW Deputy Premier, has admitted authorities are not sure “what’s working and what’s not working”, during a heated interview on Today.
“One of the things we keep saying is, it’s difficult to quantify what’s working and what’s not working,” he said on Thursday morning.
“And the reality is, even though we continue to see a rise in numbers, those numbers aren’t accelerating into hundreds and hundreds.
“In one way the restrictions are working but, of course, more needs to be done and that’s why yesterday there were a number of changes in relation to being able to move out of your local government area.”
The show’s host Karl Stefanovic appeared enraged by the Deputy Premier’s admission.
“Sorry to put this to you, but I think you just said you don't know what’s working and what isn’t. Is that what you said?” Stefanovic asked.
Barilaro responded: “Yeah, look, there’s no playbook, Karl. There is no rule book.”
He went on to claim that reducing mobility is the key to success.
“The reality is, to be able to say that I know how to get this under control or the government knows how to get this completely under control... is still testing the government and its resources.”
Stefanovic then asked the politician: “If you don't know what’s working, how can they (people of NSW) have any level of confidence as to when they will come out of lockdown?”
“Well, Karl, over the past 18 months we have managed a number of outbreaks. The Delta strain is really challenging us because it’s transmissible and contagious,” Mr Barilaro fired back.
“We are putting in place all the learned experience of the last 18 months (and) the advice from health and we will continue to throw more at this.
“I can assure the public that they should have confidence because (of) what we have done in the past. But we are not going to pretend that we have every answer because we don’t.”
NSW announced 177 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, marking July 28th the worst day since the latest outbreak began on June 16.
The state government’s inability to reduce numbers in positive cases has forced them to extend the lockdown for another four weeks at least.