The ill-fated decision to employ private security guards for Victoria's hotel quarantine program was not able to be traced back to any minister or bureaucrat in the state government despite the inquiry reviewing more than 70,000 documents.
The final report of the inquiry into the program by retired judge Jennifer Coate, tabled in Parliament today, found that the decision to use private security guards, without adequate training in infection control, was an "orphan" that neither Premier Daniel Andrews nor any of his ministers took any responsibility for.
Former judge Jennifer Coate has delivered her final report into Victoria's hotel quarantine program.Credit:Getty
"Such a finding is likely to shock the public," retired judge Jennifer Coate wrote in the report.
"The enforcement model for people detained in quarantine was a substantial part of an important public health initiative and it cost the Victorian community many millions of dollars. But it remained, as multiple submissions to the Inquiry noted, an orphan, with no person or department claiming responsibility."
Mr Andrews commissioned Ms Coate to head an inquiry into the program after several private security guards and workers in quarantine hotels contracted COVID-19 then spread it into the community in May and June.
This sparked Victoria's second wave of COVID-19, which claimed over 800 lives and caused four months of tough restrictions that included a night-time curfew, widespread commercial shutdown and a ban on leaving the home for anything but limited exercise and essential supplies.
The inquiry was initially due to report in September but was delayed first by working at home constraints then by new documents, primarily from the Department of Health and Human Services, that were only provided to the inquiry in late October.
Its budget of $3 million swelled to a cost of $5.7 million.
Former Health Minister Jenny Mikakos was the first senior figure to resign over the inquiry in September after Mr Andrews used his evidence to lay ultimate responsibility for the program on her.
Mr Andrews' top public servant, Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles, resigned next over new evidence showing a phone call with former police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton on March 27, the day the program was set up, which Mr Eccles did not mention in his original testimony.
The inquiry released an interim report at the start of December detailing recommendations for a reset hotel quarantine program, which two weeks ago began hosting international arrivals for the first time since July.
Hotel quarantine is also currently mandatory for any people arriving in Victoria from Sydney's northern beaches and will extend to all of greater Sydney and the NSW Central Coast due to an escalating coronavirus outbreak.
More to come.
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Michael is a state political reporter for The Age.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMijwFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L3BvbGl0aWNzL3ZpY3RvcmlhL25vLW9uZS1vd25zLWRlY2lzaW9uLXRvLXVzZS1zZWN1cml0eS1ndWFyZHMtZm9yLWhvdGVsLXF1YXJhbnRpbmUtaW5xdWlyeS1maW5kcy0yMDIwMTIyMS1wNTZwNjkuaHRtbNIBjwFodHRwczovL2FtcC50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L3BvbGl0aWNzL3ZpY3RvcmlhL25vLW9uZS1vd25zLWRlY2lzaW9uLXRvLXVzZS1zZWN1cml0eS1ndWFyZHMtZm9yLWhvdGVsLXF1YXJhbnRpbmUtaW5xdWlyeS1maW5kcy0yMDIwMTIyMS1wNTZwNjkuaHRtbA?oc=5
2020-12-21 00:27:00Z
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