New reports of risky behaviour by staff linked to hotel quarantine outbreaks
Senior government bureaucrats will be removed from Victoria’s hotel quarantine task force as the program undergoes a complete overhaul in the wake of revelations security guards contributed to outbreaks. It comes as links between a third Melbourne quarantine hotel and a cluster of cases are probed.
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Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine program will be completely overhauled with senior government bureaucrats axed from the task force, after it was revealed security guards contributed to outbreaks in Melbourne suburbs.
Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kym Peake announced Operation Soteria to start from Monday.
But department insiders say senior bureaucrats previously involved had been left out of the new task force, including deputy secretary Melissa Skillbeck, who had been the head of the COVID-19 Emergency Accommodation and Enforcement Compliance functions.
Others have also returned to their normal roles or moved on.
The Herald Sun revealed last month that security firms used by the quarantine hotels — hired by the Victorian government — had workers test positive after they broke social distancing rules, contributing to Victoria’s second wave of cases.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has come under increasing pressure in recent days over the bungled program with the State Opposition calling for her resignation.
On Friday Ms Mikakos said she “had no concerns about the actions of my department” and called the outbreaks “deeply frustrating”.
Opposition spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said bureaucrats “have been forced to take the fall for the Minister’s incompetence”.
A DHHS spokeswoman said “to assist us continue to deliver these programs the structures within the department will be refined to continue to support the necessary services we are providing.”
There was no mention of the overhaul which will take effect on July 6 along with a newly created deputy secretary position to oversee the taskforce filled by Jodie Geissler.
The State Government has launched a judicial inquiry into the matter and refused to answer many questions while the process is ongoing.
As coronavirus cases linked to the Stamford Plaza outbreak continue to grow, management has pointed the finger at the Victorian government and private security contractors.
A statement issued by the group said security guards that spread the virus were “personnel hired by the Victorian government.”
“On or about 13 June 2020, a security contractor, employed through the Victorian Government Contract, tested positive for the Covid-19 virus,” said the statement released on June 24.
“This security personnel was not under the employ of SPM or its related companies.
“We reiterate that Stamford Plaza Melbourne had not breached any infection control protocols.”
Hotel staff were tested as a precaution with no positive results.
The firms subcontracted by the state government include MSS Security, Unified Security and Wilson but the private security program will now be phased out following the outbreak as the government carries out a judicial review of what went wrong.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos refuted claims that The Department of Health and Human Services had contracts with the security companies.
“There were legal directions signed off by the Chief Health Officer that legally required people to be quarantining those hotels, then to provide the mental health, health and well-being support for those travellers in those hotels,” she said.
“I have no concerns whatsoever about the role of my department in at the operations of this program being thoroughly examined by this judicial inquiry.”
Ms Mikakos said employers had contractual obligations to provide training and PPE to their staff.
“We went above and beyond providing PPE to these hotels,” she said.
“Clearly some people may not have followed all the infection control protocols, that is the only explanation we can give as to what has happened with those breakdowns of infection control.”
Premier Daniel Andrews said the judicial inquiry will “get to the bottom of what has gone on here with absolute clarity.”
“There will be accountability, absolutely,” he said.
“I absolutely acknowledge this is unacceptable, what has gone on here. And that is why I have established the inquiry and by the inquiry will do its work at arm’s length. We will be independent, appropriate and get to the bottom of what has happened,” he said.
Mr Andrews defended the use of security guard in hotels.
“The notion that there is not a security guard working anywhere in the country doing this other than in Victoria is not accurate,” he said.
The ADF are providing support... we had conversations with the ADF about doing the same thing, playing that same role here in Melbourne and it was deemed, I think, by agreement between the government and the Australian Defence Force that they would simply be replicating the work that Skybus doing now and doing well ...
“The notion that the ADF is running this everywhere except Victoria is just not accurate.”
QUARANTINE GUESTS LET OUT TO GO SHOPPING
Fresh claims of rorting and dodgy practices by private security contractors have emerged in the hotel quarantine scandal rocking the Andrews Government.
Industry insiders told the Herald Sun some guards received JobKeeper payments while taking cash for their quarantine shifts.
Pressure is mounting on Premier Daniel Andrews to explain how operators with limited experience were brought in to help manage the sensitive program, resulting in a huge spike in coronavirus infections in Melbourne.
New allegations have emerged of guards walking returned travellers, who were meant to be locked down, to 7-Eleven stores and to busy shopping centres.
One guard is also alleged to have done shifts as an Uber driver while employed at a hotel.
And the debacle has spread to NSW, where private security guards employed to enforce strict hotel quarantines were sleeping on the job, The Australian reports.
A series of images obtained by The Australian document private security personnel, hired by the state government and overseen by the NSW Police Force, appearing to doze off while on duty at Sydney hotels in May and June.
It comes after the Herald Sun revealed the depth of the hotel security scandal.
INFECTIOUS MAN ALLOWED TO LEAVE HOTEL QUARANTINE
Sources said there were cases where work had been referred down several tiers, resulting in a loss of line control.
Doubts about one of the companies contracted to provide security have been swirling for months, with questions raised about whether they had the staff to fulfil contracts.
It is also understood undercutting at one of the hotels linked to the outbreaks may have allowed unscrupulous operators to provide low quotes, sidelining respected operators.
In one instance, a well-known subcontractor had their agreement abruptly terminated without explanation and another business got the job.
That hotel became the source of a coronavirus cluster that is still being contained.
One senior industry figure said it was staggering to see security for such a crisis treated like any ordinary event.
He said the trouble had been caused by some providers not having the “right procedures, the right people and, most importantly, the right supervision”.
“The writing was on the wall from the word go,” the figure said. “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys. You end up with a guy who’s being paid no dough. You get the bottom of the barrel.”
Another source said staff had been brought in with little or no experience in security.
“You can usually recognise different firms and the people within them,” the source said.
“But at some of these big hotels, the staff were totally new to the industry and we weren’t quite sure where they’d even been hired from.” United Workers’ Union official Kazim Shah said on Thursday that some guards working in the quarantine system had been given little or no training.
“They don’t understand what infection control is,” he said.
“They are working with subcontractors who didn't emphasise safety, they only emphasise money-making.”
A spokesman for Unified Security, one of the three major companies to be awarded a contract for hotel quarantine in Melbourne, said it welcomed the announcement of an inquiry.
“We look forward to detailing our procedures and practices to the inquiry at the earliest opportunity,” he said.
Top QC Dr Ian Freckelton said private security contractors could be penalised under the same powers that allowed police to fine Victorians for breaching coronavirus restrictions.
He said the government’s inquiry into the handling of the hotel quarantine system could also recommend further action.
“The public health approach is generally to give guidance to people unless there is egregious non-compliance,” he said.
“The inquiry is to assist government, It is an exercise to identify whether concerning things have occurred and to assist in formulating improved practices.
“Often though, persons undertaking such inquiries have the power to refer significant breaches of the law to the Director of Public Prosecutions,” Dr Freckelton said.
HEALTH CHIEF DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM BUNGLE
Victoria’s chief health officer says he wasn’t involved in a controversial decision to use private security to control the state’s bungled hotel quarantine operations.
Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville was the only minister put up to speak publicly on the hotel fiasco on Thursday with the Premier refusing to front the media.
But she repeatedly refused to answer a number of questions about the hotel quarantine program, saying it was now the subject of a judicial inquiry.
As pressure on the government intensified, opposition leader Michael O’Brien called for Health Minister Jenny Mikakos to be sacked.
Mr O’Brien said it was time for heads to roll over the coronavirus crisis that had remerged this week and sent more than 300,000 Victorians back into lockdown.
“This has been a complete and utter debacle,” Mr O’Brien said. “It’s time for the health minister who’s responsible for this mess to pay the price, and she should pay the price by being sacked.
“The reason this second outbreak has occurred is because the government failed to secure these returned travellers properly.”
A $3 million judicial inquiry, to be headed by Justice Jennifer Coate, will examine the government’s handling of hotel operations and the private contractors employed to monitor the program.
When repeatedly questioned about why the government went against National Cabinet advice and hired private contractors, Ms Neville said that would be a matter for the inquiry.
“It was a 24-hour turnaround on the decision on hotel quarantine,” she said.
“It was for agencies to work out the best system to do that, to get hotels who put their hand up at that time.
“It worked very quickly. Let’s see what the inquiry says about that decision.”
Ms Neville said the inquiry could decide to call ministers to speak as part of its investigation.
When asked whose recommendation it was to have private security operate Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said he had no involvement.
“It wasn’t mine,” Prof Sutton said “I haven’t been involved in the governance and operation.”
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Originally published as New reports of risky behaviour by staff linked to hotel quarantine outbreaks