Senior health official Michelle Giles defends decision to sign off on extended curfew
The bureaucrat who extended Melbourne’s curfew had started the job just nine days before signing off on the controversial, city-wide lockdown rule, but says it was definitely the right move.
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The bureaucrat who extended Melbourne’s curfew spent just nine days in the job before approving the controversial lockdown rule.
But Deputy Public Health Commander Michelle Giles has vehemently defended making the tough order, saying she acted independently without any influence from Premier Daniel Andrews or his office.
The curfew is being challenged in the Supreme Court amid claims it is invalid and unlawful, in part because Associate Professor Giles did not act independently.
It is argued the curfew decision was an illegal captain’s call by Mr Andrews that unfairly infringed on the rights of Victorians.
In a 20-page affidavit filed with the court, Prof Giles said she was convinced extending the curfew and stay-at-home directions on September 13 was the right thing to do.
She had been shown ample data that proved a “clear and direct correlation” between stage four restrictions and the reduction in case numbers.
“The decision to make the directions so as to include the curfew was mine and mine alone,” she said. “No one directed me to make that decision. I always felt completely free to make what I regarded to be the right decision from a public health perspective. And that is what I did.”
Prof Giles was also given legal advice the directions were likely to be compatible with the Charter of Human Rights. However much of that advice was redacted before being filed with the court.
Court documents reveal that when the direction was made, Victorian modelling predicted the state death toll would rise to 10,000 within six months without stringent control measures.
Prof Giles had spent just nine days in the role of Deputy Public Health Commander before approving the order.
An infectious diseases expert with almost two decades’ experience, she joined the Department of Health and Human Services’ contact and outbreak management team in August. From August 16 to 19 and from September 9 to 16 she acted as Deputy Public Health Commander while the person in that role took leave.
“At the time I made the directions, I was concerned that, without appropriate restrictions, we could very quickly see rapid, or even exponential, growth, of the kind seen in the ‘second wave’,” she said.
“At the time of making the directions, I considered that we were at a pivotal turning point in the trajectory of the virus in Victoria. I consider this is still true now.”
It emerged on Monday the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee was not consulted on the curfew.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth said the measure was not put to the AHPPC or discussed.
“The curfew was obviously designed with an intent in mind and that was to restrict movement, which ... is part of the key way that COVID-19 spreads around,” he said.
“But as a public health measure, it was never debated or discussed within the AHPPC.”
Prof Giles maintained the curfew was justified from a public health perspective. She said she was aware of comments the Premier had made about the curfew assisting law enforcement, but had not spoken to him or his office.
“I did not think enforcement issues were a substantive public health reason for the purposes of my consideration, and they were not part of my consideration,” she said.
“I simply did not regard law enforcement issues to be relevant. What was centrally relevant, to me, was whether the curfew was justified from a public health perspective. I concluded that it was.
“In reaching this conclusion, I was not influenced in any way by the comments attributed to the Premier in the media. I did not feel restricted, inhibited or hampered by those comments.”
Mr Andrews has defended the decision to impose the 9pm-5am curfew, saying it had successfully limited movement and helped police enforce lockdown restrictions.
Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton has said police did not request the curfew and were only told about it hours before it was introduced.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he did not recommend the curfew.
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