Shannon Deery: Answers Victorians are still waiting for in 2020

The year began with bushfires and ended with coronavirus. And the Andrews Government’s horrors of 2020 may not be over yet.

It’s been a long year.

For Premier Daniel Andrews and his government, like many of us, it’s likely one they’d rather forget.

It started with bushfires and will end with the ongoing threat of coronavirus.

Through a branch stacking scandal and hotel quarantine debacle, four ministers were forced out of cabinet.

Two others, key members of the Premier’s team, left of their own volition.

Andrews beat (convincingly) a no-confidence motion in parliament and faced the media
for 120 days straight in an unprecedented feat of political endurance.

And still it’s not over.

The long-awaited Hotel Quarantine Inquiry final report will be delivered to the governor on Monday.

It will also be made public.

2020 began with devastating bushfires in Victoria. Picture: David Caird

If the board accepts the submissions of former health minister Jenny Mikakos, it will find Andrews is a liar.

It’s a D-Day of sorts for the Premier, who since announcing the inquiry has basically deflected and dodged serious questions about the government’s failings over the program so as not to impede its work.

The blunders of the first quarantine program led to 801 deaths and thousands of Victorians contracting the virus.

With a $195 million price tag the program also plunged millions of Victorians back into harsh and strict lockdowns and caused emotional and economic carnage.

Andrews promised that at the end of the inquiry someone would be held to account for what is inarguably the worst public policy failure of his government.

What his version of accountability looks like is anyone’s guess. Already so many people central to the work of the first iteration of the hotel quarantine program are no more.

Health minister Mikakos: gone.

Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles: gone.

Health department secretary Kym Peake: gone.

Premier Daniel Andrews has promised accountability. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Geraghty

“There will be accountability, absolutely,” Andrews said after launching the inquiry.

“I am the leader of the government and the leader of the state.

“I take responsibility for all of the decisions that are made across our government and the performance of all of our agencies.

“That ultimate responsibility is an important function of the job that I have, the great honour that I have to serve as the Premier of this state.”

With the resignation of Jill Hennessy from Cabinet last week, there was speculation her replacement would be announced quickly. The fact the Premier has held fire could mean he’s braced for a more significant shuffling of the deck chairs should the inquiry launch insurmountable criticisms at key remaining players: Martin Pakula, Lisa Neville, or Andrews himself.

Although no one is genuinely expecting that.

After six months of work the inquiry has been slammed for failing to do its job properly.

If it’s been worth even a dollar of the $10 million taxpayers are tipped to be slugged, Victorians deserve real answers about the whole sorry saga.

Missing from the inquiry’s interim report was any reference to who made key decisions and why it all went so wrong.

Will Victorians ever get the answers they need on hotel quarantine? Picture: NCA NewsWire/Wayne Taylor

Were mistakes made by the Premier, the crisis council of cabinet, staffers or public servants?

Still there are so many questions left unanswered.

A critical one, who decided to use private security instead of the ADF?

Or who overruled Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp and his request for the deployment of 850 ADF personnel and why?

The answers may or may not be forthcoming.

The state opposition unsuccessfully lobbied the inquiry to call further witnesses to answer the outstanding questions.

Among them the Premier and Mikakos whose contrast in evidence is hard to accept.

Then there’s Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp who famously changed his evidence of an earlier parliamentary inquiry to match that given to the hotel quarantine inquiry.

While all agencies and ministers separately engaged lawyers Mikakos implied she wanted to cross-examine ministers but feared the political fallout.

She was also damning of the subversion of the ordinary Cabinet process to set up the quarantine program.

Melbourne was a ghost town during the stage four lockdown. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Geraghty

If the inquiry is to have any public confidence it must leave Victorians certain of what went wrong, and how to ensure it never happens again.

The rebooted quarantine program has now been running for a fortnight without incident.

But questions have already been raised about concerning oversights, like the waving of mandatory quarantine or airport testing for international flight crew.

Genomic sequencing has linked NSW’s sudden outbreak to an international arrival, and yet we’re still chancing our luck.

For the inquiry to have a meaningful impact it will mean making tough calls on conflicting evidence, and pulling no punches in apportioning blame.

Anything less will reveal it as a toothless tiger and spark renewed calls for a Royal Commission into not just the program, but the government’s entire pandemic response.

And so with just 10 more days until the new year, the horrors of 2020 for the Andrews government may not be over yet.

— Shannon Deery is Herald Sun state politics editor

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