Embarrassing moment Annastacia Palaszczuk's own Labor colleague REJECTS her rogue demand to vaccinate children - as Queensland reveals what it will take to open up the border
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk
Federal Labor has distanced itself from Annastacia Palaszczuk's rogue demands that children under 12 should be vaccinated before she opens her border.
In the Queensland Parliament on Wednesday the premier claimed children under 12 were 'most vulnerable' and said she would 'stand strong' on borders 'until I can get answers' on how unvaccinated kids would be affected by an outbreak.
Her own health department says 'serious illness remains extremely rare in children' and Australia's top doctors say children under 12 do not need to be vaccinated before the country can open up.
Federal Labor's Deputy leader Richard Marles rejected Ms Palaszczuk's comments and backed the national plan to start relaxing restrictions once 70 per cent are jabbed.
'I would be distancing myself from the comments of Annastacia, is the honest answer to that question,' he told the Today Show on Friday.
'We need to be following the health advice when it comes to the impact and who we should be vaccinating when.
'We don't want to be spending an extra day in lockdown.
'But at the end of the day, you can understand why states that don't have Covid want to stay in that situation.'
Queensland has been resisting calls from the Federal Government to open its state border when enough people are vaccinated and wants to keep Covid out.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said Queensland would not need such harsh restrictions once 80 per cent are vaccinated but said case numbers would also affect decision making on bringing down the border.
'Certainly at 80 per cent we'll need less restrictions but... we'd need to make decisions based on the situation in NSW, the relative situation here in in Queensland, the vaccination rate in both locations as well as the effectiveness of our other public health measures,' he told ABC radio on Friday morning.
Sydney residents are blocked from entering Queensland under the premier's border ban
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Thursday slammed Ms Palaszczuk, saying no vaccinations had been approved for children under the age of 12 anywhere in the world.
'In fact, I think the best response in a way is what has been written by Queensland Health in their ''Covid-19 and Kids: What you need to Know'' document dated 5 August 2021: serious illness remains extremely rare in children,' Mr Hunt told reporters.
'I also quote: ''Even children with serious underlying conditions will mostly only experience a mild illness with Covid-19''.'
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg agreed, claiming Ms Palaszczuk's reasoning for keeping the border shut was a 'desperate denial of the reality... not based on the medical advice.'
The Queensland premier has signalled she could delay easing restrictions once COVID-19 vaccination coverage targets are hit due to her fresh concerns about unvaccinated children (families and friends catch up at the border, above)
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly also shut down Ms Palaszczuk's controversial claims on kids.
He said there have been 3,815 cases of Delta virus infection in children under the age of 12 but only 134 hospitalisations, a 3.5 per cent hospitalisation rate.
'And we know from New South Wales data that most of the kids that have been admitted to hospital have been for social reasons, not because they are particularly unwell – their parents are sick and can't look after them,' he said.
'So the hospitalisation rate is small and most of those are not because of severe illness. There have only been three children under the age of 12 admitted to intensive care. Three out of 3,815, way less than one in 1,000.'
Professor Kelly said there have been no child deaths in Australia and said the best way to protect kids was for adults to get jabbed.
'We're not ignoring children. Children are part of the whole plan, not only in the vaccination and soon the vaccination of 12-to-15-year-olds, but also in the way we're looking at that cocooning effect that we can get from vaccination as it increases and it is increasing incredibly rapidly now right across Australia.'
He added: 'We need to start to learn to live with this virus.'
The Queensland Premier was also blasted over false claims that more than 2,000 people would die in a month after opening up.
On Thursday morning she Tweeted that '80 people will die each day' if the state follows the NSW model of living with Covid with high vaccination rates.
'That's 2,240 who will die each month,' she claimed.
Families are being forced to meet over plastic barricades at the Queensland/NSW border because of Annastacia Palaszuck's rules
Ms Palaszczuk's maths was misleading because the daily death figure is a worst case scenario modelled by the Doherty Institute based on a 70 per cent vaccination rate and partial contact tracing effectiveness.
Ms Palaszczuk got the figure from one graph in the Doherty modelling which said that with 70 per cent vaccinated and partial contact tracing, daily deaths would peak at 80 after six months.
She then assumed there would be 80 deaths per day for a whole month when in fact this scenario is highly unlikely because the vaccination rate would not stay stuck at 70 per cent.
There is nowhere in the Doherty modelling that predicts 2,240 deaths a month.
The modelling says that that if optimal testing and tracing is maintained there would be only 88 Covid hospitalisations, 21 ICU admissions and 13 deaths nationally in the six months after the 70 per cent jab rate is reached.
Ms Palaszczuk Tweeted that '80 people will die each day' if the state follows the NSW model of living with Covid. Her claim has been shut down
Ms Palaszczuk came under fire from Greg Hunt (pictured on Thursday) for spouting unfounded fears about children
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt slammed Ms Palaszczuk and said she was trying to scare the public for her own political gain.
'Selectively misusing the Doherty modelling breaches good faith and damages public confidence,' he said on Thursday afternoon.
Mr Hunt also tore into Premier Palaszczuk for banning residents returning from Covid-ravaged NSW.
The move has left a three-year-old boy, Memphis, separated from his parents north of the border for two months - and stopped people entering Queensland for healthcare.
'This is a profound moral failure. Let these people in for medical treatment and for a three-year-old to be fully reunited with their family,' Mr Hunt said.
It comes as the Federal Government urges premiers to stick to the national re-opening plan which relaxes restrictions in two stages when 70 and 80 per cent of over 16s are vaccinated.
The plan states that Australia stops suppressing Covid cases when 70 per cent are vaccinated and instead learns to live with the virus.
Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT have walked back from the plan by either vowing to continue suppressing cases or insisting that children are vaccinated.
Some states are threatening to keep their borders closed or require higher jab rates before scrapping lockdowns, raising the prospect that Australia will remain a divided nation for months to come