Melbourne’s Hotel Quarantine Inquiry has turned into a circus with no party claiming responsibility for running the failed program, nor anybody providing information as to who made the decision to contract out management to untrained private security.
As we know from earlier proceedings, both the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton claimed they had no oversight over the quarantine operation nor the decision to use private security and not to use police or Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel. Both parties also told the inquiry that they warned of problems early on, but were ignored.
On Friday, the Police Chief at the time of inception, Graham Ashton, told the inquiry that private security would be used in hotel quarantine as part of a “deal set up” by Premier Daniel Andrews’ office:
A text message exchange between the then-Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw reveals the Department of Premier and Cabinet may have played a role in the fateful decision.
“Mate. Question. Why wouldn’t AFP Guard people At The hotel??” Mr Ashton wrote to Mr Kershaw on the afternoon of March 27.
Ten minutes later Mr Ashton sent a follow-up text message: “Mate. My advise (sic) is the ADF do passenger transfer and private security will be used.”
“Ok that’s new,” Mr Kershaw replied.
“I think that’s the deal set up by our DPC (Department of Premier and Cabinet). I understand NSW will be a different arrangement,” Mr Ashton said…
In his written statement to the inquiry, Mr Ashton said he did not know whose idea it was to use private security guards. But it was not his.
He suggests it was Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles who made the recommendation about 1:20pm on March 27, just minutes before his text message exchange with Mr Kershaw.
An email written by Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent on March 28 was also shown to the inquiry, which links the Department of Premier and Cabinet to the plans.
“The CCP (Chief Commissioner of Police Graham Ashton) advised me … that the agreed position at this stage is private security will be employed for this health intervention,” Mr Nugent wrote.
“DPC also rang me about this late last night and confirmed that was the arrangement.”
Conveniently, however, Victoria’s top bureaucrat and Premier Daniel Andrews’ right hand man, Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) secretary Chris Eccles, pleaded ignorant to the inquiry on Monday:
Victoria’s top public servant has claimed he is still in the dark over who decided to use private security guards at quarantine hotels.
Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles — Daniel Andrew’s right-hand man — told the hotel quarantine inquiry neither he nor his department decided to use private security instead of the Australian Defence Force.
Asked directly whether he had since become aware of who made the decision, Mr Eccles replied: “No I haven’t.’’
The hotel inquiry was on Monday shown documents that seemed to indicate the highest levels of the public service, including Mr Eccles and former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Graham Ashton, knew a decision had been made on March 27 to use private security instead of the ADF…
Mr Eccles was also grilled on whether, as the head of Victoria’s public service, he should know who decided to use private security, employing thousands of people and costing tens of millions of dollars…
He did not directly answer, and instead spoke at length about the structures of “individual and collective decision-making’’ and “collective governance”.
Seriously, check out this gobbledygook answer by Eccles, designed purely to obfuscate and deflect blame:
A question about whether Mr Eccles as head of the Victorian public service had a view on the fact no-one knew who had decided to employ private security “employing thousands of people and costing tens of millions of dollars’’.
Q: Shouldn’t we be able to say who made it, as a matter of proper governance?
A: It’s a really interesting and important question because it seizes at the issue of individual and collective decision-making. There’s a, I would imagine, an argument that there are a number of core contributors in the emergency management framework for the issue of securing hotels, that is the Emergency Management Commissioner as co-ordinator, DHHS as the controller and Victoria Police as the security experts. So no one of them is the repository of all information that goes to bear to the question. So part of the reason why we have things like the State Control Centre and we have governance that is collective governance is that we bring to bear relevant perspectives in making important decisions. So I, I have a strong view that the concept of collective governance, where you are bringing together the specialist skills of different actors to deal with complex problems, is an important part of how we operate. So you’ve asked for my response as the head of the Public Service, I can see some legitimacy, legitimacy in the idea of there being collective governance around a matter such as this.
How could the head of Victoria’s public service not know who made the key decisions on Hotel Quarantine, especially given the hefty contracts involved costing tens-of-millions of dollars? It doesn’t pass the pub test.
But wait, there’s more. The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Kym Peake, fronted the inquiry on Tuesday and also claimed she had no idea who was in charge:
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) secretary Kym Peake told the inquiry the ill-fated program was run across multiple government departments despite evidence at the inquiry stating the public health administration body was in charge after the program was established.
“I certainly agree that we provided a coordination function, but my view is that there was a joint operation on the ground and I think that was well documented in the operational plan and has been clear through the evidence of many witnesses,” Ms Peake said.
“I certainly agree it was shared accountability for [hotel quarantine].”
An increasingly frustrated counsel assisting the inquiry, Ben Ihle, grilled Ms Peake on the supposed contradiction of her department leading the COVID-19 response but not being ultimately responsible for the decisions made in the program, known as Operation Soteria.
“I know it would be, what’s the right word … straightforward, if there was an ability to say today there was a single point of accountability for everything to do with COVID-19 and Operation Soteria in particular, but I do think the whole weight of evolution of public administration and public service delivery has been that people are not carved up into portfolios,” she said.
Mr Ihle showed Ms Peake an email from senior department official Jason Helps sent on March 29, just a few hours before the program began, which stated the department was the control agency.
“[DHHS] has overall responsibility for all activities undertaken in response to this emergency,” Mr Helps wrote.
“Ms Peake, is your evidence that Mr Helps must have been confused or misunderstood what the department’s responsibility was?” Mr Ihle asked.
Ms Peake said the program “scoped” different agency secretaries and officials, and had “appropriate operational governance”.
“We had sole responsibility but there was shared accountability,” she said…
She also said she was not involved in discussions around the use of the ADF, private security or Victoria Police at the hotels.
Then yesterday, Jobs Minister Martin Pakula fronted the inquiry and claimed Jenny Mikakos’ Health Department was in charge of the hotel quarantine program, not his own. This view was backed up by testimony from Police Minister Lisa Neville.
Clearly, the whole Victorian public service is suffering from collective amnesia. Everyone’s responsible but nobody’s responsible.
Other senior ministers, including Premier Daniel Andrews, will front the inquiry today and tomorrow. Victorians deserve answers.
