Limitations of inquiry into Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine may stop truth from surfacing
The inquiry into Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine system will hold its first public sitting in just 10 days amid concerns serious limitations of the probe may stop the truth from surfacing.
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The inquiry into Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine system will hold its first public sitting in just 10 days.
No witnesses will be called at the July 20 hearing but Jennifer Coate, who is leading the inquiry, and counsel assisting, Tony Neal QC, will both make short opening statements.
Further public hearings are expected to be held in August.
The proceedings will be live-streamed and transcripts will be made available shortly after the proceedings.
Letters will also be to agencies asking them to identify any shortcomings with respect to the quarantine program.
A final report is due by September 25.
The announcement follows serious concerns raised about the scope and powers of a judicial inquiry.
The Herald Sun understands that hearings will be held in public, and that ministers, departmental staff and security guards involved will be called to testify.
But unlike a royal commission, witnesses can refuse to answer questions for fear of self-incrimination.
The inquiry also will not have the power to issue search warrants or seize documents, like that of a royal commission.
Questions have also been raised about the inquiry, to be headed by former judge Jennifer Coate, being hindered by its terms of reference.
Under those, the decisions and communications between government agencies, hotel operators and private contractors are set to be probed.
However specific decisions of a policy nature — as opposed to its implementation by an agency — may be beyond the scope.
Leader of the Opposition in the upper house, David Davis, described the inquiry as a “whitewash designed to shield the Premier and his key ministers from scrutiny”.
“The inquiry is clearly designed to direct the questions to agencies and shield ministers; it’s a cover-up,” Mr Davis said.
He called on the government to answer questions around the quarantine operation ahead of the inquiry.
“They should answer the legitimate questions on quarantine and Cedar Meats and the other COVID-19 cock-ups on their watch,” he said.
“An inquiry does not preclude answering frankly, honestly now on what ministers knew, and when and what went wrong.
“It certainly doesn’t preclude a frank and honest admission of error or failing by a minister. That should happen now,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday that he expected Ms Coate would not be inhibited in any way and would be free to run the inquiry as she deemed necessary.
Asked if the hearings should be held publicly, he said: “That is entirely a matter for former Justice Coates.
“I have said a few times in recent days, it is not about the government sitting in judgment on itself. It should be done at arm’s length and will be,” he said.
It is understood Ms Coate, who has already started work on the inquiry, has already canvassed the idea of calling ministers, departmental staff and security guards to testify. Sources say it is likely they will be called.
The inquiry is set to review the way in which infected workers from an abattoir cluster in Melbourne’s west were quarantined at the Rydges hotel in the CBD.
The Cedar Meats cluster appeared during the first wave of the pandemic, and led to some workers who couldn’t self-isolate at home being put up at the Swanston St hotel.
A cluster later emerged at Rydges involving 17 people, and it is still unclear where that outbreak originated.
Questions were raised about a potential link after allegations were raised that some locals in quarantine were treated differently to returned travellers.
A spokeswoman for the Andrews government said a number of Cedar Meats staff isolated in hotel quarantine because “they were unable to do so safely at home” but were no longer in the scheme when the Rydges cluster appeared.
“All Cedar Meats staff had left the hotel by mid-May, before the first case in the Rydges outbreak was symptomatic,” she said.
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