Will Sutton be next to fall on hotel quarantine sword?

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer (CHO) Professor Brett Sutton told the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry that he did not know that private security firms were guarding the hotels until he became aware of the COVID-19 outbreak at the Rydges on Swanston in May. He also warned in June that private security guards were the “wrong cohort” in reference to them being a casual and ill-trained workforce.

Sutton’s written testimony to the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry also stated explicitly that he was not aware of the decision to use private security for quarantine:

“I have not been involved in giving directions, instructions or guidance to private security contractors. As explained, prior to the outbreaks I was not aware that security guards were being used”.

However, email correspondence has been revealed proving that Sutton was aware as early as late March that private security guards were the preferred option for guarding the quarantine hotels. But this correspondence was curiously not provided to the inquiry.

The email chain, published by The Age, was from the day hotel quarantine arrangements were made (27 March) and involves an exchange between Sutton and a colleague within the Department of Health, and clearly spells out plans to use private contractors:

Several departmental sources have this week claimed to The Age that a deliberate decision was made by DHHS and its legal advisers not to give certain emails to the inquiry.

“There was much debate but a decision was made that the department could get away with claiming they weren’t relevant,” said one source…

The missing email chain shows Professor Sutton directing another health department official to answer a series of questions posed by the federal Department of Home Affairs about Victoria’s hotel quarantine arrangements, and then acknowledging the response from his department.

Government sources with knowledge of the situation have confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services provided the inquiry with further emails on Friday after receiving a notice to produce. The notice came after The Age had alerted the inquiry to the existence of fresh emails.

Just hours after the National Cabinet decided on March 27 to place all international arrivals into 14-days mandatory hotel quarantine, Professor Sutton received an email from Sandra Jeffrey, the assistant secretary in Home Affairs for border measures.

Ms Jeffrey asked Professor Sutton to provide an overview of Victoria’s hotel quarantine arrangements and key contacts. Professor Sutton asked departmental colleagues to prepare a response and to copy him into the email sent back to Ms Jeffrey.

In answer to question four from Ms Jeffrey about security arrangements, the DHHS response stated: “Directions will be provided to passengers as the (sic) disembark and will be supported by Victoria Police at the airport. Private security is being contracted to provide security at the hotels with escalation arrangements to VicPol as needed.” Professor Sutton was copied on this email.

The email chain shows Professor Sutton thanking a colleague for his work after Home Affairs was advised of Victoria’s arrangements, including the use of private security.

Despite the above irrefutable evidence, Brett Sutton on Saturday stood by his initial testimony claiming it didn’t register:

“I thanked them for the responses that they were given but I clearly did not register that anything was being said about private security, otherwise I would have gone to the inquiry and said I was aware of it”.

Clearly, collective amnesia runs thick through the Victorian Government.

Ever since the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry was announced, we have witnessed the entire public service and government forget all pertinent details on who made the decisions and signed off using untrained private security to manage quarantine hotels instead of police and/or the department of corrections, with supplementary support from the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

In recent week’s we’ve seen Premier Daniel Andrews’ right hand man, Department of Premier & Cabinet Secretary Chris Eccles, resign after telephone records showed he phoned then-police chief Graham Ashton on March 27, the day the hotel quarantine inquiry was set up. This contradicted claims made by Eccles to the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry that he had not spoken to Ashton.

We witnessed Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner, Andrew Crisp, retract testimony stating that he had briefed the Police Minister and Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville in the days leading up to the hotel quarantine scheme being launched.

We saw Premier Daniel Andrews tell a parliamentary inquiry that Victoria was never offered ADF support from the federal government, only to then find out that support was offered multiple times and explicitly acknowledged twice by Daniel Andrews on 27 March.

And now we have CHO Brett Sutton telling the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry that he wasn’t aware that private security was to be used to guard quarantine hotels, only for emails to emerge showing Sutton knew on 27 March.

The whole hotel quarantine circus has “cover-up” written all over it. There are more holes in the Victorian Government’s stories than Swiss Cheese. And the entire notion of no decision being made on private security, and there instead being some type of “creeping assumption” on the $80 million program, doesn’t pass the pub test.

The only positive is that the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry will hold an “extraordinary sitting” on Tuesday to examine the contradictory evidence and holes that have emerged in recent weeks.

Let’s hope the Inquiry finally delivers some answers and accountability. This farce has run for too long.