After weeks of evidence, the inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine has still not answered the critical question – who decided to use private security as the single line of defence against the coronavirus? Nor do we know why guards were not trained in infection control or the use of PPE, why early warnings about problems in the system were ignored, or why public health experts were not engaged?
The above ABC 7.30 Report provides a comprehensive review of the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry and shows a conga-line of senior public servants and ministers passing the buck, displaying collective amnesia, and shunning responsibility for failures that, according to Ben Ihle – council assisting the inquiry – was “responsible for the deaths of 768 people, and the infection of some 18,418 others”.
The failures were systemic from top to bottom. Everybody was responsible but nobody was responsible.
If you want the perfect case study of incompetent governance and bureaucracy, this is it.
