That's a little confusing. The red (Labor) states are the more progressive ones (both are very centrist and tend to steal each others policies). In Australia the conservative party is "blue".

NSW is a conservative-leaning state and has had a few missteps (Ruby Princess and now). Victoria (Labor) had a bad period last year because their contact tracing was not good enough, and they left lock-down to long rather than going hard (NZ style).

QLD and WA are both Labor and have both done well and got lucky with their missteps. Queensland* has ~5 million people mostly living in the SouthEast metro areas and 7 deaths from about 1,800 cases.

*About to go into lockdown again in 3 hours, but these short sharp ones are fine and then we go back to living like there is no Covid.

What?

The Liberal party is generally considered conservative, and Labor progressive. The federal government is currently formed by the Liberal Party (that is actually conservative). Their colour is blue.

The states that have handled covid spread well have Labor governments in power, Labor is progressive, and their colour is red.

This is a confusing take. Which states dropped the ball on Covid and let it run rampant? Which ones have handled it near-flawlessly? By 'red-state equivalents' do you mean the ones with Liberal Premiers? If so that would seem like an inaccurate oversimplification.