Annastacia Palaszczuk has stood by her drastic Covid lockdowns despite families being separated from dying loved ones because of them.
The former Queensland premier will lead a panel discussion around Australia’s response to Covid on 7News Spotlight at 8.45pm on Sunday night.
Ms Palaszczuk said the decisions were not made lightly and that she would go home every night and question whether she had done the right thing.
‘Not everything was right, not everything was perfect, but we got through it,’ she said.
Despite facing widespread criticism at the time, Ms Palaszczuk stood by her decision to enforce harsh lockdown measures and close the state borders.
The measure greatly impacted families who were unable to say goodbye to their dying relatives.
‘It was very difficult at the time, but the results for Queensland in the end, I do stand by it, but I do acknowledge it was very difficult and hard for families,’ she said.
‘The end result was we only had tragically seven deaths during that whole period of that two years before we opened up our borders, so I think the results show that it did work.’
Ms Palaszczuk avoided commenting on what she could have done better or whether she would make the same decisions today.
Annastacia Palaszczuk has spoken out about the backlash she received for separating dying families from each other during Covid
Instead, she focused on the lessons learned during the pandemic, saying they needed better access to vaccines and masks.
‘We didn’t have the masks and everything else that was needed so, we actually have domestic manufacturing, but we also have, I believe, a stronger economy that’s come out of it,’ she said.
‘For me in the grips of that early time, that early stages when we first heard about this virus, I didn’t know, I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we got there, and we got there as a nation.’
Spotlight host Michael Usher said the segment would look back at ‘what our leaders and experts did right and wrong during the Covid pandemic’.
‘We found it’s still a very emotional issue to discuss. It’s a very honest debate,’ he said.
‘Some will never be happy with Australia’s pandemic response, some think we did the right things for the greater good, and we found now is the right time to discuss how some people were failed.’
The former Queensland Premier enforced some of the toughest restriction in the country, and has since admitted that some of those decisions have weighed on her mind
During that pandemic, Ms Palaszczuk’s strict restrictions were unpopular with many Australians.
She closed the Queensland border to Sydney and Victorian residents for 250 days in 2020, before slamming it shut on another two occasions.
Mark Kilian was among those who lashed out at the former premier for her lack of compassion after he was refused a quarantine exemption to see his 80-year-old father who was dying of pancreatic cancer in a hospital on the Gold Coast.
After the passing of his own mother, former Labor leader Bill Shorten urged Ms Palaszczuk must exercise compassion.
When the borders did reopen, people weren’t so complimentary, with many pointing out that families had been separated, Queenslanders couldn’t come home and businesses had been destroyed.
The episode ‘After Covid’ airs at 8.45pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.