Dramatic moment a shaken Gladys Berejiklian demands the police commissioner and chief health officer return to podium to prove she only received the health advice last night
- Premier calls on police commissioner and chief health officer to address media
- Gladys Berejiklian was responding to media questions about ignoring advice
- She insisted her colleagues explain exactly when she receieved their advice
- ‘I will not have anybody say otherwise’, an under-pressure premier said
An under-pressure Gladys Berejiklian dramatically demanded the police commissioner and chief health officer return to the podium to answer journalists’ questions over the health advice she received during lockdown.
The NSW premier looked defeated as reporters asked whether she had dismissed Dr Kerry Chant’s advice about enforcing harsher lockdown restrictions, during a press conference on Friday.
The dramatic moment came as NSW recorded another 642 Covid-19 cases and four deaths.
During heated questioning, Ms Berejiklian insisted said she had followed the health advice throughout the pandemic in the best interest of Sydney and denied suggestions she had not accepted health and police advice.
‘I will not have anybody say otherwise. I will ask the Commissioner and Dr Chant to verify exactly when we received this advice and on how long it took for us to accept it,’ Ms Berejiklian said.
‘At every stage the New South Wales government has responded quickly to the advice we have, but we have also learned a lot,’ said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
The tense press conference came as NSW recorded another 642 positive Covid-19 cases, and four deaths.
As a result of the dire numbers, Ms Berejiklian announced harsh new restrictions for and extended the Greater Sydney lockdown until the end of September.
From Monday, a curfew will be enforced in the parts of Sydney most affected by rising cases meaning people in those areas will not be allowed to leave their homes between 9pm and 5am.
People in those suburbs will only be allowed to exercise for one hour a day.
These new rules apply to the Local Government Areas of Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and some suburbs of Penrith.
A curfew will be imposed in 12 Local Government area hot spots with residents unable to leave their homes between 9pm and 5am, except for essential work or in an emergency
The only exception to the rules is for essential work or in an emergency.
Ms Berejiklian told reporters the new restrictions were among a list of things that could have been actioned earlier.
When probed by reporters as to why further restrictions for the rest of Greater Sydney weren’t imposed eight weeks prior, the Premier appeared flustered as she asked journalists to not interrupt her.
‘I wish there was a perfect pathway stop I wish there was a list of things I said do this and you will be okay,’ Berejiklian said.
The Premier was then interrupted by another journalist that said: ‘This is the list of things we could do earlier, so why is the question, why didn’t we do it earlier?’
An exhausted Dr Kerry Chant was called back to the microphone to tell journalists the timeline of her advice to the NSW Premier