After weeks of testimony encompassing private security firms, senior bureaucrats and department heads, the chief health office, and senior ministers, the judicial inquiry into Melbourne’s hotel quarantine debacle still does not know who made the decision to engage private security to manage the program at a cost of tens-of-millions of dollars, instead of the Victorian Police with supplementary support from Australian Defence Force (ADF) and private security.
So far the inquiry has heard vague and contradictory evidence from the Victorian Government (see yesterday’s post).
For example, Emergency Management Commissioner, Andrew Crisp, claims it was the preference of the former police commissioner, Graham Ashton, to use private security. However, Ashton denied this, telling the inquiry that Crisp told him. Ashton also inferred that the decision had likely come down from the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC), an allegation denied by DPC Secretary Chris Eccles. Amazingly, Eccles – the most senior public servant in the Victorian Government and Premier Daniel Andrews’ right hand man – also claimed he had no idea who made the decision.
The farce extends to the bureaucracy, ministers and chief health office.
Both the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told the inquiry that they had no oversight over the quarantine operation nor the decision to use private security and not to use police or the ADF.
Jobs Minister Martin Pakula fronted the inquiry this week 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.
However, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Kym Peake, told the inquiry that she had no idea who was in charge and that responsibility was shared. This was backed up yesterday by Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, who said she did not know who suggested and approved the use of private security guards, and claimed she was not even aware of their use until May when an outbreak at the Rydges on Swanston hotel emerged:
“I believe I first became aware of the use of private security guards contracted by DJPR in the HQP (hotel quarantine program) after the Rydges outbreak occurred in late May”.
“In particular, at around that time, I was advised by the DHHS public health team that the private security contractors engaged to participate in the HQP had the contractual responsibility to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention and control training to their staff.”
So, we have been left with a “Yes Minister” situation and collective amnesia from the Victorian Government. Nobody made the key decisions and nobody is responsible for the disastrous outcomes.
Today, the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry will face its D-Day moment with Premier Daniel Andrews taking the stand.
Andrews is a control freak and the state’s leader. All roads point back to him. It’s impossible for him not to know who decided what and why. He must come clean.
The whole farce and chain of events is laid out below by the 7.30 Report:
