Explosive video lays operation behind Victoria’s hotel quarantine fiasco bare
A government department was formally alerted about worrying behaviour from hotel quarantine security guards just days before filming a bizarre video, which former Labor leader Bill Shorten has compared to an episode of The Office. WATCH THE VIDEO
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A government department was formally alerted about concerning behaviour from security guards working on hotel quarantine just days before filming a controversial video lauding its bureaucrats.
It comes after the Herald Sun revealed the in-house video in which staff congratulated their own efforts to set up the bungled scheme in less than 24 hours.
Federal Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten compared the embarrassing video to a scene from the hit TV comedy The Office.
The footage features a range of public servants who do not work in public health talking about the success of the program — now under the scrutiny of an inquiry — in such a short time.
A source involved in the hotel quarantine program said “inappropriate behaviour” of security officers had been raised with the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions before the video’s release on April 24.
The source was incredulous the video was produced and called some of the top bureaucrats involved in running the program “officious”.
“If you think you are doing a good job, put yourself up for a public service medal in six months’ time, don’t do a video about it in the middle of a pandemic,” the source said.
During a state parliamentary inquiry, Liberal MP Richard Riordan, asked Premier Daniel Andrews whether it was wise to use staff “who fix roads” for the program rather than health officials.
“People across the board are performing roles and functions that are a long way away from what they might be traditionally expected to,” Mr Andrews said.
The Premier later told a press conference he had been aware of reports about the video but had been too busy to watch it.
“I’ve been far more focused on far more important things,” Mr Andrews said.
“Ultimately, there are people working across the board playing many different roles.
“They all have different skill sets, different backgrounds, different expertise. But one thing that is common to all of them is that they’re all working as hard as they possibly can and they all want to get to the other side of this.”
Former judge Jennifer Coate is leading an inquiry into hotel quarantine and has previously said there is no legal reason why ministers could not answer questions about the scheme.
But the Premier has avoided questioning by maintaining there are questions about its scheme he does not have the answers for.
The Herald Sun has previously revealed the inquiry will look into how government employment targets played a role in awarding security contracts, with undercutting, underpayment and minimal training rife in the sector.
Public hearings are scheduled to begin on August 17 after delays created by stage four restrictions.
Federal Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten said public servants claiming credit for sorting out hotel quarantine when they “just hadn’t” reminded him of hit TV comedy The Office.
“One lesson for public servants is don’t do victory lap videos too soon. I mean, in all seriousness, I know these are trade people,” he said.
“So they were obviously put into an unfamiliar environment. But there is a judicial inquiry going on. So I don’t know, just don’t make a video until you know that it’s all over.”
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Originally published as Explosive video lays operation behind Victoria’s hotel quarantine fiasco bare
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