New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has publicly admitted that she didn’t follow her own coronavirus rules by failing to self-isolate after being tested last week.
Berejiklian asserted that she only got tested at NSW Parliament out of an “abundance of caution” after beginning to lose her voice and feel tired, with a negative test result being received two hours later.
However, many people were quick to point out the hypocrisy of the situation, with the Premier who has been urging people to “do the right thing” for the last nine months choosing to blatantly ignore her own rules. For those unaware: the guidelines specifically require you to self-isolate *at home*.
In an interview on ABC Breakfast this morning, Berejiklian owned up to the mistake, but still seemingly excused her own circumstances.
“In hindsight, I should have closed my door and not seen anybody for the 90 minutes to two hours while I was waiting for the result,” she said.
“I didn’t change my schedule. Perhaps I should have.”
https://twitter.com/_JustinStevens_/status/1330977661087150081
She then went on to describe that her symptoms wouldn’t normally require testing, seemingly excusing her decision not to self isolate, which would be in breach of the public health guidelines for any other person in NSW.
“But it was only because I was tired and losing my voice and I knew that I didn’t have any [COVID-19] symptoms. But having said that … I’m judged accordingly and I have to accept that.”
When asked if she would change the rules, considering she blatantly disregarded them herself, Berejiklian said “absolutely not.”
“Absolutely not. Why would I change the guidelines?”
At this point, if you’re confused how the Premier can just make her own set of rules, you’re not alone.
But she then doubled-down on the excuse that an ordinary person would not have been tested.
“An ordinary person probably wouldn’t have needed the test at all because I didn’t have any of the symptoms apart from being tired and losing my voice, and it hasn’t completely come back,” she said, seemingly ignoring that tiredness and fatigue *is* a symptom of coronavirus.
“But I appreciate what it looks like and how I’m judged.”
If anyone else in Australia received a COVID test, regardless of how mild their symptoms are, they would be required by law to self-isolate until they receive their test results. So why is it any different for Gladys?
