‘Sorry… what did you just say?’ Awkward moment John Barilaro admits the government has NO IDEA what lockdown restrictions are working in train wreck interview with Karl Stefanovic
New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro has admitted his government has no idea which of Sydney’s lockdown restrictions are working during an on-air grilling from Karl Stefanovic.
Mr Barilaro on Thursday morning defended the decision to lock down Australia’s largest city for another four weeks after the first five weeks of stay-at-home orders did nothing to stop the spread of the highly-contagious Delta Covid-19 strain.
NSW recorded another 177 cases on Wednesday as authorities banned non-essential workers from leaving three more government areas in Sydney’s west and south-west.
‘Let’s see what happens over the next four weeks,’ he told the Today show co-host when asked what would happen if the extended restrictions also failed to lower transmission in the city.
‘I have no crystal ball to tell you what we do next.’
‘Sorry to put this to you, but I think you just said you don’t know what’s working and what is. Is that what you said?’ Stefanovic responded.
Mr Barilaro replied that there was ‘no playbook’ to getting Sydney out of lockdown.
‘We are throwing everything at it,’ he said.
‘What we’ve seen are stubborn numbers so [I can’t] sit here and say I know how to get this under control. It’s still testing the government and its resources.’
Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday confirmed restrictions would remain in effect until at least August 28 before NSW Health listed another 104 new exposure sites, including busy supermarkets, shopping centres and chemists.
New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro admitted his government has no idea which of Sydney’s lockdown restrictions are working and which are not on Thursday morning
The map indicates the eight local government areas where Covid-19 is transmitting the most rapidly
Mr Barilaro said the state government was relying on its experience handling earlier Covid-19 outbreaks during the pandemic to quash the spread of the Delta variant.
‘The public should have confidence in us because what we have done in the past,’ he said.
‘But we are not going to pretend that we have every answer because we don’t.’
Eight local government areas in the city’s west and south-west are now under tougher restrictions than the rest of the city – Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Blacktown, Cumberland, Parramatta, Campbelltown and Georges River.
Only authorised workers whose jobs are deemed essential by the NSW government are allowed to leave their LGA for work.