Leigh Sales, host of popular ABC show 7:30, has slammed Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews over the state’s 5-day lockdown after she made a surprise appearance at his press conference.
He appeared uncomfortable at times during the tense 10-minute exchange as Sales accused him of lacking faith in Victoria’s quarantine system.
“How is it the case the government still lacks such confidence in the hotel quarantine systems and contact tracing that you currently can’t manage two or three cases a day?” Sales asked.
“If you have confidence in the system, which your own bureaucrat said was working quite well, why do you need a lockdown?”
Andrews tried to back down, saying that Sales was making claims that were “not accurate”.
“You just put it to me that there is a lack of confidence,” Mr Andrews said.
“I am more than confident in the team we have and in the Victorian community that they can get through this.
“So with the greatest of respect, you have put a number of things to me that are not accurate.”
Sales asked the question on most Victorian’s minds: Why was there a lockdown if cases were being properly traced?
“Lockdown imposes a real cost and Victorians have already paid a big price for lockdown. Cases are actually very well traced, so why the lockdown?” she asked.
Andrews said that the measures were “necessary”.
“Despite the amazing efforts of all of our contact traces and testers and lab workers and the work of so many genuine hardworking Victorians, we had a situation where at the same time as we are becoming aware of the primary case, they have already infected their close contact,” he responded.
“That is not something we’ve seen before.
“The speed at which this has moved saw our public health team make the very difficult decisions based on the best of science and the best understanding you can possibly have on any outbreak.
“This was a difficult but proportionate and necessary thing to do.”
Andrews also pointed out that the response is intense due to the UK coronavirus strain posing different challenges than the 2020 strain of COVID-19.
“This is a very different virus. If you want to look at systems that can’t handle things, have a look at Europe, have a look at so many parts of the world with … what happens when this UK strain runs.”
Sales then asked if this would be the case every time a UK strain was found in Victoria.
“That’s quite an assurance to make that two to three cases a day and the system might not be able to handle it, and if that’s on the table then you might have a five-day lockdown every time,” she said.
Andrews said that Victoria will try to avoid having any statewide measures.
“But we will try to avoid having any statewide measures or any extra rules,” he said.
“Just like epidemiologists, public health experts and political leaders across the globe, you have to assume there are more cases out there then you know about.
“Because if you assume otherwise, and you are proven wrong, then there is no going back.
“You don’t get to go, ‘well, I just get to rewind these few weeks and make the decision officials told me to make, that I refused to make.”
Eagle-eyed fans of Sales noticed that she was at the presser before it was made public.
“A few people on here noticed I was at Dan Andrews’ presser. FYI I’m only in Melbourne because I came for a friend’s bday & got caught in lockdown. I didn’t come here just for DA presser. @abc730 had an interview bid in for today he said no – attending presser next best option,” she tweeted.
