Claims rogue security operators linked to quarantine debacle ‘weaponising’ Indigenous policy
Explosive new claims about the security contractors at the centre of Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine will be explored as an inquiry into the program begins. Here’s the questions that need answering.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Rogue security operators are exploiting Victoria’s Indigenous procurement rules to gain contracts over genuine providers, industry insiders have warned.
Fresh concerns have emerged that contractors linked to coronavirus hotel outbreaks not only undercut reputable businesses but gained an advantage by spruiking employment targets that were never met.
An inquiry into the problem-plagued program, due to present opening statements on Monday, is expected to probe the issue.
The Andrews Government had a 1 per cent Indigenous procurement target for the 2019-20 financial year.
One senior figure linked to government hiring said security companies were now regularly finding loopholes within these policies to gain an edge over their competition.
In some cases, large firms have created offshoot businesses that qualify as Indigenous providers.
They then subcontract work to their parent company with little or no follow-up about whether government quotas were met.
“The issue is not that the targets exist, the issue is that bad behaviour is pushing out companies who can actually do the work,” one source said.
“It would be less of a problem if undercutting and minimal book keeping weren’t rife, genuine operators have no chance to compete. People are weaponising a policy meant to make things better.”
Complaints have previously been raised on smaller government contracts across Australia.
But figures within the industry are also believed to have raised the issue with the inquiry.
Indigenous-owned Unified Security, one of three companies to win contracts for the hotel work, was selected despite not being on a list of preferred tenderers to provide work at short notice.
Wilson and MSS security, who were also awarded work, were preferred tenderers.
It can also be revealed that under government guidelines, returned travellers were able to apply to skip the mandatory hotel quarantine and instead undertake their own 14-day quarantine elsewhere.
Last week 38 such exemptions had been made in Queensland, including for Dannii Minogue and her son.
A Victorian Department of Health and Human Services spokesman told the Herald Sun there were a “number of reasons” that people could get an exemption but refused to say how many people that had been approved in Victoria.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said exceptions to hotel quarantine were among the many parts of the “catastrophic breach of hotel quarantine” that would be examined at as part of a national review, announced by Scott Morrison last week.
M ORE NEWS:
STAGE 4 RESTRICTIONS THE NUCLEAR BOMB OF LOCKDOWNS
SHOCKING NUMBER OF OUTBREAKS LINKED TO WORKPLACES