Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry all but guaranteed to fail
The resignation of Victoria’s Health Minister Mikakos yesterday is not enough. The factional and familial alliances behind Victorian Labor deserve prosecution for their incompetence, writes Piers Akerman.
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The evidence is in. The Victorian government is the most incompetent state administration in the nation’s history.
Premier Daniel Andrews, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, Jobs Minister Martin Pakula and Police Minister Lisa Neville, are unfit to hold any public office.
Further, serious questions must be asked of the most senior Victorian public servants ranging from the head of the Premier’s department,
Chris Eccles, to Health Department secretary Kym Peake, Jobs Department secretary Simon Premister, Emergency Services Commissioner Andrew Crisp, former Police Commissioner Graham Ashton and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton of whether they should keep their jobs. This is not a harsh view of the appalling situation in Victoria.
It is measured and based on the tragic mishandling of hotel quarantining during the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
We watched the abysmal failure of the state’s political and bureaucratic leadership as coronavirus deaths soared in the state following the hiring of private security guards to monitor those held under the failed hotel quarantine regimen.
Victoria, according to the last official published figures on Friday, recorded 781 of the nation’s 869 coronavirus deaths.
Of those deaths, 652 occurred in aged care homes, 622 of which were in Victoria. So much for Premier Andrews’ claim that the virus does not discriminate by age.
For the record, the state with the second highest number of coronavirus deaths is NSW with 53.
For months, Victoria’s botched response to the coronavirus has been killing people and acting as a brake on the national recovery.
In belated acknowledgment to the unfolding catastrophe, Mr Andrews tasked former judge and former coroner Jennifer Coates to examine the bungled hotel quarantine program on July 2.
Mr Andrews was the last of 62 witnesses to give evidence when he appeared on Friday but just like his previously mentioned ministers and the roster of department heads he, too, was clueless about who was responsible for initiating the failed private security guard quarantine program.
He and his ministers took part in meeting after meeting, the public servants held their meetings, text messages and memos were exchanged, the private guards were hired despite explicit written reservations.
ADF personnel were offered, Prime Minister Scott Morrison sent numerous letters to Mr Andrews underlining the immediate availability of troops, just as he had put them at the state’s disposal during the bushfire emergency earlier this year, and immediately accepted but almost as quickly rejected.
Another huge error in the litany of failures contributing to the disaster.
We await Justice Coates’ findings but her inquiry failed to publicly reveal the answer to the one question that Mr Andrews claimed it should lay to rest — who was responsible for hiring the private security guards.
Those in the Andrews’ Cabinet claimed there was something called “collective responsibility” for decision making, which meant that all present were involved but no single person could be held responsible for any decision.
Had Mr Andrews wanted the truth he would have appointed a senior judicial figure from outside Victoria to run a royal commission with the power to subpoena witnesses and documents.
It would have been relatively easy to examine the critical documents awarding private security firms their contracts, discover which public servants signed on behalf of their departments, and ask them who ordered them to engage the guards.
By backtracking up the ladder, those responsible may have been brought to account.
Mr Andrews attended the most important meetings but never queried its decisions, even claiming he wasn’t aware of them. He is ultimately responsible.
Though he ended his testimony with an apology to Victorians, he didn’t apologise to the nation and he hasn’t given any indication that he will resign or sack his incompetent ministers or those in their departments. This is not clearly not good enough.
It makes a mockery of transparency and accountability in the Victorian government and shreds the notion of protection offered by Mr Andrews’ own ludicrous charter of human rights.
This inquiry was an inadequate response, all but guaranteed to fail.
The resignation of Health Minister Mikakos yesterday is not enough.
The factional and familial alliances behind Victorian Labor deserve prosecution for their lethal and economic incompetence.