’Every’ coronavirus case in Victoria could be linked to botched hotel quarantine system: inquiry
Victoria's scandal-plagued hotel quarantine program is being put firmly in the firing line as an inquiry into the scheme begins and suggestions it could have sparked the state’s second coronavirus wave continues to mount.
HS Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from HS Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The suitability of contractors hired to run Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, and how they were chosen, will be key issues in the inquiry into the bungled scheme, it has been confirmed.
Dozens of contractors and government departments have been put on notice and asked to submit responses to the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry which started on Monday.
Counsel Assisting the inquiry, Tony Neal, QC, said notices to produce had also been issued to government agencies and private companies, with all material due by the end of July.
Mr Neal also said evidence already available to the inquiry suggested the possibility of a link between many of the cases of coronavirus identified in the Victorian community in the past few weeks and people who were quarantined under the hotel program.
“Comments made by the chief health officer to the media have suggested that it may even be that every case of COVID-19 in Victoria in recent weeks could be sourced to the hotel quarantine program,” Mr Neal said.
“Increasingly over recent weeks there has been growing and understandable community concern about transmission from that program into the general community.”
Adressing the media on Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews said the inquiry was needed to “understand exactly what has gone wrong in that hotel quarantine program”.
“I am confident that process will give us the answers that we are each entitled to,’ he said. “What has gone here is completely unacceptable to me and unacceptable to all of us but the best thing to do is to have that proper understanding of exactly what has gone on.”
The Premier said neither he or any government minister had yet been approached to give evidence at the inquiry.
But he again reiterated his confidence in the inquiry’s terms or reference and $3 million budget to deliver answers for Victorians.
Justice Coate said she expected “full, frank and timely cooperation” from all government agencies and private contractors.
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 inquiry.
As well as other government departments more than a dozen private companies have been asked to submit material, including hotels central to the program Rydges on Swanston and the Stamford Plaza.
Mr Neal said the first public hearing of witnesses will take place on August 6.
He warned employers faced significant penalties if they attempted to deter employees from giving evidence to the inquiry.
Jennifer Coate, who is heading the inquiry, said she knew the extreme importance of the inquiry to Victorians.
Public hearings will be live streamed, and transcripts of all public hearings will be published on the inquiry’s website.
Justice Coate said she expected “full, frank and timely cooperation” from all government agencies and private contractors.
The hearing has been adjourned until August 6.
A report is due to be ready by September 25.
MORE NEWS
CARLYON: LACK OF TRUST IN LEADERSHIP SPREADING QUICKER THAN VIRUS
ROGUE SECURITY OPERATORS ‘WEAPONISE’ INDIGENOUS POLICY