Analysis: Security 16 delivers another jaw-dropping moment at hotel inquiry

We already knew guards caught COVID-19 from infectious guests at the Rydges hotel. We now know that it was virtually inevitable.

The slow-moving train wreck that is the hotel quarantine inquiry has delivered yet another jaw-dropping moment, this time in the words of an anonymous security guard known only as “Security 16’’.

We already knew guards caught COVID-19 from infectious guests at the Rydges hotel.

We now know, given this guard’s lack of training and personal protective equipment, that it was virtually inevitable.

Leaving aside his decision to work while waiting for test results, there’s a wider issue of the responsibility the subcontractors bear for hiring such poorly trained young people, sight-unseen, via a WhatsApp message.

The slow-moving train wreck that is the hotel quarantine inquiry has delivered yet another jaw-dropping moment. Picture: Getty Images

And by extension, the responsibility of the security companies that hired the subcontractors and the state government who decided to use private guards despite longstanding concerns about the industry, and despite offers of Australian Defence Force help.

We should get some answers next week, when the security firms begin appearing before the inquiry.

Speaking of responsibility, inquiry chair Jennifer Coate had some pointed words for the government departments at the heart of the fatally botched quarantine program.

In polite judge-speak,

Ms Coate on Monday twice reminded parties “with emphasis’’ that they must comply with the timelines of the inquiry in producing documents and witnesses statements. She didn’t name any departments but we note that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions are appearing in the coming week.

The messages to the paper-shufflers in the bureaucracy couldn’t be clearer

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