Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp’s credibility goes up in flames
Victorians can’t seem to escape the hotel quarantine saga. Just when we were ready to move on, “Crispy” – as the Emergency Management Commissioner is known – threw another curveball.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Just when the world was ready to move on from the hotel quarantine debacle, along comes Andrew Crisp with another clarification.
The many explanations of “Crispy” — as the Emergency Management Commissioner is known — have brought light relief to an otherwise maddening saga.
The fun began in August when he rode loyally to the rescue of his government, saying that yes, while the ADF was involved in initial discussions on hotel quarantine he had not sought nor had it offered its help, a position clearly at odds with the evidence from Canberra.
It did not become clear until September, however, just how far he was prepared to go as a human shield.
In his third — third! — statement to the Coate Inquiry, Crispy suddenly remembered a meeting about lunchtime on March 27 with the Police and Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville and Chief Commissioner of Police Graham Ashton.
He remembered it after it was drawn to his attention in Ashton’s statement. Ashton’s evidence was that Crisp led the meeting and briefed him and Neville on the program. He was emphatic about it.
Crisp’s statement to the inquiry merely says that he became aware of it during that easily forgotten meeting. His evidence to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, however, was that he briefed Neville on the hotel quarantine program on March 27 and 28.
This evidence was given in the presence of Neville, who did not contradict it. Yet now — out of the blue and entirely of his own volition — he has written to the PAEC saying that although he told it three times he had briefed Neville, this was not so. How did these people come to rule us?
MORE NEWS:
ANGRY HOSPITALITY LEADERS QUESTION ANDREWS’ PLAN