Inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine disaster begins

Advertisement

The public inquiry into Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine has begun today in Melbourne.

Tony Neal, the senior counsel assisting the hotel quarantine inquiry, said in his opening address on Monday that information already available to the probe suggests “the possibility of a link between many of the cases of coronavirus identified in the Victorian community in the past few weeks and persons who were quarantined under the hotel quarantine program”.

Neal added that “comments made by the chief health officer to the media have suggested that it may even be that every case of COVID-19 in Victoria, in recent weeks, could be sourced to the hotel quarantine program”.

The COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry will examine, report and make recommendations on the decisions and communications of the Victorian government and personnel involved in the program.

Advertisement

No witnesses will make an appearance today, but further public hearings will be held in August.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.