Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised for flying to visit his children on Father's Day while families remain separated due to lockdown orders around the country.
Scott Morrison spent the weekend in Sydney before returning to Canberra (file picture). Photo: Visits and Ceremonial Office / Mark Tantrum
Morrison took a RAAF VIP jet to Sydney on Friday and spent the weekend in his home city before returning to Canberra yesterday.
As an essential worker, Morrison received approval from ACT Health to return to the capital, without having to spend two weeks in quarantine, subject to conditions such as regular Covid-19 testing.
Despite the exemption, Morrison has been criticised by parliamentarians and by members of the public for the trip, because both the ACT and NSW are in lockdown.
Federal Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten said this morning that Morrison had shown "appalling judgement", while NSW South Coast resident Clare Hooper described her anger at learning Morrison had been able to see his family when she was denied permission to travel for her mother's funeral.
Morrison this afternoon defended his travel, arguing criticism of the trip was nothing more than a "cheap shot", and saying he did not need an exemption to return to his home in Sydney, only to travel to Canberra - which he was granted.
The prime minister also insisted he had not tried to mislead the public by posting an older photo of his family on Instagram to mark Father's Day, when he was in fact in Sydney.
'I'm not the prime minister's keeper'
Today ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr was grilled at his daily Covid-19 press conference about Morrison's sojourn, and said while it was not for him to judge, he could understand the frustrations of others.
"I can understand the community frustration at what they would perceive the prime minister has done in relation to a trip home over the weekend," Barr said.
"Is it a cause of concern for many in the community? Well, clearly it is.
"This is the biggest press conference we have had in a while and there are a few faces I don't usually see who are here to ask me these questions."
Barr said Morrison was an essential worker and had returned to Canberra in time for two events this week - a national security cabinet meeting and the National Summit on Women's Safety.
"The prime minister's role is unique in the nation and that is understood," Barr said.
"Canberra faces a challenging set of circumstances as the seat of government and the national capital in terms of continuing the operation of our nation's parliament and democracy."
Asked if he thought the prime minister's trip could be viewed as "Hawaii 2.0" - when Morrison took a family holiday to Hawaii during the 2019 summer bushfires - Barr said he could "see how people could reach that conclusion".
Barr urged reporters to speak to Scott Morrison directly.
"I'm not the prime minister's keeper," he said.
"I don't offer political advice to the prime minister very often, and he probably wouldn't listen to me anyway. I think these are questions that are probably best posed to him."
He added that both Parliament House and the prime minister's residence, the Lodge, were "among the most remote from the rest of Canberra".
"They sit behind two-metre-high fences - no one else gets into either place without very strict security protocols," Barr said.
Morrison is subject to a level 3 stay-at-home order, meaning he can move between the Lodge and Parliament House for essential work.
The prime minister's office said he had received approval from ACT Health to return to the capital, with several conditions, including restricted movement while in the ACT.
No proof that Father's Day trip was 'unsafe': Chief Health Officer
ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman was asked why her directorate had given Morrison an exemption to return to the national capital.
"Look, I don't comment on individual cases - what I can say to you is that my job as the chief health officer is to protect the ACT community," Dr Coleman said.
"As part of that we've put an exemptions process in place for essential work activities, and this has been considered in line with those, and granted in line with those.
"Secondly, it's not up to the chief health officer to make an assessment on the essentiality of businesses in areas that I have no understanding of, we work with different industries to understand their needs."
Dr Coleman said the onus was on individuals and businesses to make the right decisions about what was considered essential travel for that industry and which essential workers needed to partake in any travel.
"In many ways, it is a trust relationship as is much of society moving forward," she said.
"We've been having ongoing conversations, myself and [Australia's Chief Medical Officer] Paul Kelly and our offices, around making Parliament House and other activities as safe as possible. This is the result. And we continue to work through that.
"And I don't think there's been any proof that it has been unsafe."
- ABC