Mammoth cost of Victoria’s hotel quarantine revealed to still total $7 million a month
Months after its bungled execution sparked Victoria’s catastrophic second coronavirus wave, the state’s hotel quarantine system is still costing millions of dollars each week — with hundreds of staff are being paid to sit at home on standby.
HS Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from HS Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Victoria’s hotel quarantine program is costing an estimated $7m a month to staff, the state government has revealed.
Hundreds of staff are being paid to sit at home on standby as the continued suspension of inbound international flights leaves the program out of action for returned travellers.
New figures have revealed almost 1500 staff have been hired and trained as resident support officers since the program was taken over by Corrections Victoria in July.
It includes about 100 from Corrections Victoria, almost 1350 airline workers and more than 50 people from other professional backgrounds — most whom remain on standby pending the resumption of international flights to Victoria.
There were on Friday just 107 people in the quarantine program, including 19 in mandatory quarantine, 33 in emergency accommodation and 55 people in frontline worker accommodation.
It leaves an average of about 14 staff available for every guest.
In July alone the department incurred costs of $7.12m related to employee and miscellaneous costs, uniforms and personal protection equipment.
The new figures were revealed by the state government in answers to questions on notices from the Parliamentary Accounts and Estimates Committee pandemic response inquiry.
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said on Friday the entire hotel quarantine program had been overhauled.
Ms Hennessy said mandatory quarantine for returned travellers, emergency accommodation and frontline worker accommodation had all been formalised under one operation.
And she defended keeping staff on standby.
“It is critical to the success of the COVID-19 accommodation program that we have a ready and trained workforce available to scale up the program as demand increases as international flights return,” she said.
“Those employed undergo extensive and ongoing training, as well as assisting with the current program which is providing accommodation for community members who cannot safely self-isolate or quarantine at home.”
But Opposition corrections spokesman David Southwick said the botched hotel quarantine “just keeps going from bad to worse”.
“With 14 employees hired for every hotel quarantine guest and reports of staff sent home on full pay due to a lack of work — Victorians are righty wondering how Labor has got this so wrong yet again,” he said.
“With unemployment spiking and businesses forcibly closed, Labor’s botched management of hotel quarantine is adding salt to the wounds of every Victorian business and taxpayer doing it tough.”
Ms Hennessy said changes to the system should give Victorians confidence in the program moving forward.
“We want Victorians to feel very, very assured that the accommodation program is a very, very focused one,” she said.
M ORE NEWS
DOUBT OVER ACCURACY OF VICTORIA’S VIRUS DEATH TOLL