Hotel quarantine inquiry: Six-minutes hold the answer Victorians deserve
Victoria Police closing submissions to the hotel quarantine inquiry make clear the six minutes immediately after former police chief Graham Ashton texted the head of the Premier’s office hold answers as to who made the decision to hire private security.
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The Board of Inquiry investigating Victoria’s catastrophic hotel quarantine program now has no choice but to call for the phone records of those working directly for Premier Daniel Andrews.
The closing submissions from Victoria Police makes clear the six minutes immediately after former police chief Graham Ashton texted the head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet Chris Eccles hold answers as to who made the decision to hire private security guards.
Mr Ashton was contacted by someone – the word “someone’’ underlined in Victoria Police’s submission – in that period, leading him to understand that private security would be used in the hotels in a “deal set up by our DPC.’’
Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember who told him this, and the inquiry only has a log of his outgoing — not incoming — calls.
Mr Eccles says he’s examined his phone records and can see it wasn’t him who called Mr Ashton.
Equally unfortunately, Mr Eccles says he didn’t ask any of his colleagues if they contacted the former chief cop on his behalf.
There is conflicting legal advice as to whether Telstra can release Mr Ashton’s inbound call log, under federal laws.
But if that is not possible, the inquiry must go through a process of elimination by requesting the outbound call logs made by the Premier, senior officials from his department, his chief of staff and those in his private office.
If any of them made a call to Mr Ashton during the six-minute mystery period, perhaps we have the answer all Victorians deserve.
The inquiry can do this. It retains the power to issue a Notice to Produce, compelling people to hand over all requested evidence, including phone records, right up until just before it hands down its report on November 6.
The inquiry has been carefully making its way through a mountain of evidence — and will do the same with the closing submissions, including that of resigned Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, who essentially accused the Premier of being untruthful.
She says ministers and departments didn’t cross-examine each other during the hearing due to concerns it could be “politically disadvantageous’’ and “improper.’’
What an extraordinary act of cowardice then that she waited until her closing submissions to say what she really thought – after she had resigned from Cabinet, from Parliament, and she had nothing left to lose.
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