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Victoria’s hotel quarantine: The text meesage that secured a $44 million payday

Victoria’s hotel quarantine program was supposed to curb the deadly spread of COVID-19, instead the state government bureaucrats involved viewed it as a marketing, jobs and social inclusion opportunity, detailed in these insider emails and texts.

Hotel Quarantine Inquiry told DHHS staff disappointed when virus got out

Shortly after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday, March 27, that returning overseas travellers would be detained for a 14-day compulsory quarantine in hotels, Victoria Police started work on Operation Bandor.

Operation Bandor’s mission was to contain COVID-19 – a highly-infectious coronavirus which had started in Wuhan, China – and stop it spreading into the Victorian community. Its name, presumably, was randomly generated by a police computer, although Victoria Police won’t confirm that.

Within 24 hours, after two virtual meetings at the State Control Centre, Operation Bandor’s name changed to Operation Soteria.

We know this because Commander Tim Tully sent an email to his Victoria Police colleagues at 8.26pm on Saturday, March 28, advising that: “Op order name changed to Op Soteria.’’

Bureaucrats from the public service were now involved in the operation and attending the SCC meetings, where the Department of Premier and Cabinet had responsibility for “strategic messaging.’’

One of Pam Williams' emails containing the Soteria tagline in her email signature.
One of Pam Williams' emails containing the Soteria tagline in her email signature.

Someone in the bureaucracy found the time to ensure Operation Soteria was included in Government email taglines.

We don’t know when this decision was made but an email sent in late May from Pam Williams, the DHHS “accommodation commander’’ included the following line:

“Soteria (Ancient Greek) was the goddess or spirit (daimon) of safety and salvation, deliverance and preservation from harm.’’

Commander Tim Tully advised the Operation name had been changed. Picture: Ellen Smith
Commander Tim Tully advised the Operation name had been changed. Picture: Ellen Smith

The decision to use the operation as a marketing opportunity wasn’t the only misplaced priority developed by bureaucrats, with other problematic decisions emerging from the first, frantic weekend, as the inquiry headed by retired judge Jennifer Coate has uncovered.

Katrina Currie, a mid-ranking official from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, had been seconded to the “Working for Victoria’’ program supporting those who had lost their jobs in the first COVID-19 lockdown. She was given the task of hiring private security firms to work at the quarantine hotels.

She told the inquiry she did not think the firms she hired would outsource their work to subcontractors, and said she wanted them to use permanent employees because that way they would receive award wages and appropriate conditions.

Katrina Currie getting cross examined at the hotel inquiry.
Katrina Currie getting cross examined at the hotel inquiry.

But in a sworn statement to the inquiry, the Victorian general manager of security firm MSS, Jamie Adams said: “Katrina had no issue with us using subcontracted staff.

“She mentioned that the hotel quarantine program was all part of providing work for people who had been stood down due to COVID-19. It was about creating employment opportunities for people who had lost work due to the shutdowns and restrictions.’’

So, marketing and jobs. The quarantine program was experiencing mission creep.

Exhibit HQI0065a: a witness statement of Jamie Adams where he states that Katrina Currie told him it was all about employment.
Exhibit HQI0065a: a witness statement of Jamie Adams where he states that Katrina Currie told him it was all about employment.
Exhibit HQI0065a: witness statement of Jamie Adams where he states that Katrina Currie told him it was all about employment.
Exhibit HQI0065a: witness statement of Jamie Adams where he states that Katrina Currie told him it was all about employment.

But there was more to come.

Ms Currie also decided to hire a Sydney-based security company called Unified Security. She said the “employer engagement team’’ in the DJPR had sent a WhatsApp message to her suggesting three companies – Wilson, MSS and Unified. The texts have not materialised so far in the inquiry, so we still don’t know whose suggestions they were.

She contacted Wilson and Unified late on the Friday night and it was Unified who got back to her first, at 6.52am on Saturday, March 28. In a phone call at 7am, they were hired to guard the first two quarantine hotels – Crown Promenade and Crown Metropol, which were taking the first guests, due the next morning.

An appreciative guest thanks Victoria after being quarantined for two weeks at the Crown Promenade. Picture: Andrew Henshaw
An appreciative guest thanks Victoria after being quarantined for two weeks at the Crown Promenade. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

It would later emerge they had only 89 permanent employees in Victoria, but ended up supplying more than 1750 guards – almost entirely through subcontractors.

It also emerged the company had applied – but been rejected – for admission to the Victorian Government’s preferred supplier list.

The company is controlled by David Millward, who owns 51 per cent of it through a holding company whose sole director is Unified’s executive assistant, Sandy Millward Pratt.

Mr Millward previously owned and ran two security businesses which had collapsed into liquidation.

Yet after being hired by Ms Currie, they would go on to secure the vast amount of business guarding hotels in Victoria, with documents showing they were to be paid an eye-watering $44 million. And six of their subcontracted security guards would contract COVID-19 while working at the Rydges hotel, seeding 90 per cent of Victoria’s deadly second wave.

Hugh de Kretser, a returned traveller who was quarantined at the Rydges Hotel in Melbourne, was cross examined during the inquiry. Shown at left of screen is discarded PPE and a children's toy that he found in his room.
Hugh de Kretser, a returned traveller who was quarantined at the Rydges Hotel in Melbourne, was cross examined during the inquiry. Shown at left of screen is discarded PPE and a children's toy that he found in his room.

Senior bureaucrats realised almost immediately there was a problem in hiring Unified. While they later discovered they were legally able to do so under emergency provisions, their first reaction was to call in the lawyers when they realised they’d hired a company, without a tender, that was not on the already approved list of suppliers.

A strategic procurement specialist named Trevor Esch from the DJPR wrote to another senior bureaucrat, Paul Xerri, on March 31, two days after the first guests were detained, and when Unified was already providing security services.

Exhibit HQI0037a: Annexures to witness statement from Katrina Currie with references to Trevor Esch and Paul Xerri.
Exhibit HQI0037a: Annexures to witness statement from Katrina Currie with references to Trevor Esch and Paul Xerri.

“Hi Paul, need clarity on the rationale for going outside the SPC (preferred supplier list) in this instance. I understand there was an urgency to get things up and running quickly over the weekend but to have a non-approved firm providing security and effectively enforcing government regulation at quarantine sites off the back of some emails and phone calls presents significant risk to individuals involved and the department/Government that is not easily mitigated,’’ he wrote.

“Need to be clear on why this provider was engaged instead of the SPC providers (noting requests went to Wilson and MSS – who are on the SPC) and whether there was any reason to continue with them (as opposed to switching them out for an SPC provider for example) in order to assist with determining next steps.’’

Mr Esch said he’d referred it to the legal team.

Mr Xerri sent it on to Ms Currie and asked her to respond.

She detailed the quick turnaround, then added a line to the bottom of her email, sent at 4.32pm on March 31.

Unified Security Group which has been responsible for hiring guards to watch quarantine hotels for people returning from overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unified Security Group which has been responsible for hiring guards to watch quarantine hotels for people returning from overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Unified is an Aboriginal owned and controlled organisation and has worked with DJPR on related social procurement initiatives … while they are not a panel provider for security services, utilising their services is absolutely in keeping with the concept … ‘’ The email then ends, apparently prematurely.

At 6.52pm it was sent again, this time in bold type, to Mr Esch, noting hiring Unified: “is absolutely in keeping with the State Government’s social procurement objective of utilising Aboriginal businesses.’’

Exhibit HQI0037a: Annexures to witness statement from Katrina Currie with references to Aboriginal ownership.
Exhibit HQI0037a: Annexures to witness statement from Katrina Currie with references to Aboriginal ownership.

Ms Currie said a legal exemption should be sought but “Unified are delivering and have been delivering services since Sunday. A rationale for the exemption is both immediate need and their responsiveness but also their status as an Aboriginal owned and controlled business under the Government’s social procurement objectives.’’

So, now the quarantine program was providing marketing, jobs and social inclusion opportunities. It was ticking all the Andrews Government’s public service boxes. But there was more to come.

A Melbourne hotel quarantine guest walked out of the Pan Pacific in South Wharf to go to a convenience store before he was stopped by a security guard.
A Melbourne hotel quarantine guest walked out of the Pan Pacific in South Wharf to go to a convenience store before he was stopped by a security guard.

Global Victoria, which was heavily involved in organising logistical support for the program, would later film a promotional video spruiking their work, with CEO Gonul Serbest making the assertion that they were treating the program as a “massive, inbound super trade mission.’’

Nowhere in the DJPR correspondence uncovered by the inquiry does anyone appear to state the obvious – that the quarantine program was not a marketing or employment opportunity, not a trade mission or a chance to boost Indigenous employment.

It was instead the most serious public health emergency Victoria had faced in 100 years.

The first COVID-19 wave in Victoria killed 19 people. The second has already killed close to 700.

Screengrabs from a video produced by a state Government agency Global Victoria celebrating the success of the now botched hotel quarantine in Melbourne.
Screengrabs from a video produced by a state Government agency Global Victoria celebrating the success of the now botched hotel quarantine in Melbourne.

Counsel assisting the inquiry Ben Ihle told the hotel inquiry last week that the “primary objective of any quarantine program is a health objective: preventing the further spread of a disease’’ and that the program had “failed to control the spread of COVID-19.’’

He said the second objective of quarantines was to meet the needs of those it detained, for food, medical attention and mental healthcare.

“Based on the evidence of nurses and returned travellers, much of which was uncontested, it is open to the Board to find that there were shortcomings in meeting those needs,’’ he said.

MORE NEWS

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BRETT SUTTON BLOCKED FROM TAKING CONTROL OF COVID RESPONSE

SECURITY FIRM BAFFLED BY $44M HOTEL QUARANTINE DEAL

SECURITY GUARDS COULD NOT CHASE GUESTS WHO ‘DID A RUNNER’

Read related topics:Scott Morrison

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/how-hotel-quarantine-program-in-victoria-was-botched/news-story/034cd6fbb7f0eaa3a8661f810c683ff3