Rita Panahi: Vic govt goes from frying pan to fire over botched hotel quarantine program

The state government may have dodged a bullet when criminal charges over the bungled hotel quarantine program were dropped, but if a looming class action succeeds, it may become the biggest in Victorian history.

The state government may have dodged a bullet when a legal loophole saw the Office of Public Prosecutions drop criminal charges against the Victorian Health Department arising from the botched Covid-19 hotel quarantine program that led to hundreds of deaths and plunged the state into a lengthy and crippling lockdown.

WorkSafe had alleged dozens of breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Health Department was facing fines of up to $95m.

But that amount may look like spare change if a class action on behalf of Victorian businesses is successful.

Law firm Quinn Emanuel has filed a class action against the State of Victoria alleging failures in its hotel quarantine program led to the devastating lockdown between July 2020 to October 2020.

Law firm Quinn Emanuel has filed a class action against the State of Victoria alleging failures in its hotel quarantine program. Picture: Ian Currie

They allege this lockdown “resulted in significant economic loss for retail businesses who had to close or significantly reduce operations” and will be seeking to “return those economic losses to retail businesses in Victoria.”

Damian Scattini, who is leading the class action, told me he was quite happy with the criminal charges being dropped.

“We always thought it was patently ridiculous that the state of Victoria – no individual, no one in the state of Victoria, no one at any department who may have been responsible for botching hotel quarantine was facing prosecution – just the state of Victoria and obviously the state of Victoria can’t be put in jail,” he said.

“If the state of Victoria was fined as a result of the prosecution, it would be a ledger entry, it would be going from the state of Victoria to the WorkCover authority … We always thought there was little point to that.”

Thousands of Victorian businesses that have joined the class action. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Quinn Emanuel already has thousands of Victorian businesses that have joined the class action.

“We have mediation coming up on November 14 and any business that wishes to take part, to have their losses considered for that mediation, has to register with us by the 8th of July,” Mr Scattini said.

Thousands of businesses have registered from large organisations down to local dog groomers.

Any retail business that suffered losses as a result of the second wave lockdown is eligible to register for free.

If successful, this could be the biggest class action lawsuit in Victorian history.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist