The six key questions Daniel Andrews was asked at hotel inquiry
Premier Daniel Andrews has fronted Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry about what went wrong in the bungled scheme. Here’s what he said in response to key questions.
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Premier Daniel Andrews was grilled by the hotel quarantine inquiry about what went wrong, with the disastrous scheme leading to a second wave of coronavirus and hundreds of death. He couldn’t say who chose security guards to patrol the hotels, but singled out the minister for Health as accountable for the overall scheme. And he said he didn’t know ADF troops were on offer despite his department secretary getting an offer on April 8. Here’s what he said in response to key questions.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
“I don’t have a view. What’s more, I don’t know that it’s appropriate … for me to establish an Inquiry and then seek to run an Inquiry myself. I’m very respectful of this process. You have looked through 200,000 pages of different documents, you have heard from many, many witnesses. I’m not in a position to do that sort of work so that’s why we set this process up.”
DO YOU KNOW WHO MADE THE DECISION TO USE SECURITY GUARDS?
“No, I don’t. That’s why I set up this Board of Inquiry or recommended to the governor to set up this Board of Inquiry, to get exactly that answer and quite a few others.”
WHY DID GRAHAM ASHTON THINK THE PREMIER’S DEPARTMENT PREFERRED SECURITY TO POLICE FOR ENFORCEMENT IN MARCH?
“They are a deeply operational matter that would not be determined by my office
or indeed by my Department, I would say. That would be out of character, we have emergency management structures and agencies for exactly those purposes.”
WHY DID HE MENTION POLICE AND SECURITY AS BEING INVOLVED ON MARCH 27, BEFORE THE SCHEME WAS SET UP?
“I’m not certain why I mentioned police, private security and our health team — those three groups of people and not a fourth or a fifth group … I can’t clarify for you or outline
for you why I chose those three groups. I’m afraid I have tried to search my recall of this and I can’t provide you the detail of why they are mentioned and others aren’t.
DID HE KNOW ABOUT THE OFFER OF ADF TROOPS MADE TO HIS DEPARTMENT SECRETARY CHRIS ECCLES, VIA EMAIL, ON APRIL 8?
“The first time I’m seeing this email was in preparation for this … Given that it’s so at odds with what I took away from the National Cabinet meeting, I think it would have been very significant to me. I can’t predict what outcome it might have had but I certainly would have wanted to know, because it would have presented us with options that we otherwise didn’t have.”
WAS THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH IN CHARGE?
“Yes. The Crisis Council of Cabinet … is where updates, regular updates, came forward under the health portfolio and the Minister Health’s signature. There was some procurement of hotels and other similar procurement activity that was led by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and therefore for those components, Minister Pakula would be accountable for those.”
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