Hotel quarantine inquiry delayed by six months after stage four restrictions enforced
Daniel Andrews is free to answer questions about Victoria’s botched hotel quarantine scheme, the chair of an inquiry into the program has revealed after the multimillion-dollar probe was delayed.
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Victoria’s anticipated hotel quarantine inquiry has been delayed by more than a month, allowing Premier Daniel Andrews to answer questions about the botched scheme.
Mr Andrews has today approved an extension to the inquiry’s reporting deadline, from September 25 to November 6.
The Premier would not comment when asked about potential delays to the inquiry at a press conference today.
But the amended terms of reference for the inquiry have been published online.
It comes as Jennifer Coate, who is leading the inquiry, is to hold an extraordinary hearing to explain changes to its operation.
It is understood inquiry staff have been working around the clock to keep it on track.
But the introduction of stage 4 restrictions made the delay unavoidable.
Mr Andrews is free to answer questions about the bungled program, the chair of the inquiry probing the scheme has ruled.
Hotel Quarantine Inquiry chair Jennifer Coate said on Wednesday there was no legal need for anyone asked questions about the program not to answer them fully and frankly.
“This board of inquiry is not a court. Under law, unlike a court, there is no general restriction or prohibition which would prevent a person from commenting publicly or answering questions to which they know the answers on matters which are the subject of examination by this board of inquiry,” she said.
The Premier and his team have repeatedly refused to answer questions about the program, saying it was a matter for the inquiry.
Three medical experts will be the first called to testify about the nature of COVID-19, infection control, epidemiology and contact tracing and genomic testing.
Genomic testing evidence is expected to reveal almost all, if not all, of Victoria’s second wave can be directly linked to the bungled quarantine scheme.
Key decision makers are also tipped to be hauled before the $3 million inquiry to give evidence before former Justice Jennifer Coate.
The retired judge has warned she expects full, frank and timely co-operation.
Contractors and government departments have been put on notice and asked to submit responses to the inquiry.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet, the Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria Police, Emergency Management Victoria and Ambulance Victoria have all been identified as central to the probe.
Victorian taxpayers are footing the multimillion-dollar bill for hundreds of empty hotel rooms under the hotel quarantine scheme.
It can be revealed more than a dozen hotels, including luxury inner-city accommodation providers, were put on retainer contracts worth millions of dollars to house returned travellers.
However, sources revealed since international flights had been diverted from Victoria, hundreds of rooms had gone unused and some hotels were still being paid for despite being entirely “empty”.
It comes as a parliamentary committee called on Tuesday for urgent reforms to Victoria’s privacy laws, finding the Cedar Meats outbreak that infected at least 111 people could have been avoided.
The Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), in an interim report into the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, found current laws significantly hindered contact tracing efforts to stop the Cedar Meats outbreak.
The abattoir was linked to at least 111 COVID-19 cases after a senior employee who hadn’t been at the plant for four weeks tested positive in April.
Another worker tested positive on April 24, a third on April 26.
A Department of Health and Human Services risk assessment was launched as soon as the cases were identified and work was rapidly scaled back at the facility.
However the PAEC report, released on Tuesday, found efforts to control the cluster were hampered by prohibitions in the Health Records Act about releasing information about individuals without their consent.
It meant DHHS was limited in its “ability to notify staff of the potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus,” the PAEC report said.
It found it took nine days for the DHHS to receive access to data on the total number of people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 at the abattoir.
A lack of communication between GPs and DHHS also contributed to the outbreak.
PAEC is made up of five Labor MPs, three Coalition MPs, a Green and a Liberal Democrat.
A minority report filed by opposition MPs said they were unable to support the interim report in its entirety.
“The PAEC report is severely compromised as a result of its political partisanship,” it said.
Among many criticisms of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis the minority report found: “the Cedar Meats outbreak was preventable had the Andrews Government allowed contact tracers to do their job without restriction.”
The report called for the government to consider options to amend the Health Records Act to more effectively facilitate contact tracing.
It made another 22 recommendations calling for improvements to processes to assist future public health emergencies.
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