Transport Minister Jacinta Allan dodges responsibility for hotel fiasco
Transport Minister Jacinta Allan is the latest in the Andrews Government to dodge questions on hotel quarantine at a parliamentary inquiry. It was also revealed that transport representatives attended the meeting where it was decided to use private security for the bungled scheme.
Victoria
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Department of Transport representatives attended the March 27 meeting during which authorities decided to use private security for hotel quarantine, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Speaking before the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan said she had been informed of the meeting shortly by department staff shortly after it finished.
Skybus was then contacted to manage the task of ferrying returned travellers to hotels.
But when asked by Gippsland South MP Danny O’Brien which minister had oversight of the entire quarantine program, Ms Allan refused to be drawn into a response.
“You and your colleagues have canvassed this on multiple occasions during the course of this week,” she said.
“You will know that I have nothing to add to the comments that have been made already over the course of this week on that matter.”
Ms Allan said she did not believe the option of transporting passengers with help from the ADF had been brought to her attention.
“Given Skybus was a viable service, it was one that could be stood up very quickly,” she said.
The inquiry also heard that tests to receive learner drivers licences could be moved online to help battle the backlog of thousands of Victorians.
The tests are run on computers on VicRoads offices but have not been available while these sites are shut.
The Department of Transport’s head of transport services Nick Foa said staff were actively investigating moving the tests online.
He said there had already been a 197 per cent increase in line transactions for services such as registration and licensing.
LOCKDOWN OF PUBLIC HOUSING WAS ‘CHAOTIC’
City of Melbourne chief executive Justin Hanney also said the situation at public housing towers in their range had been “chaotic” in the hours after a hard lockdown was imposed on residents.
He said the council had been told about the restrictions an hour before they were announced and implemented.
“It was quite chaotic,” he said.
“There was confusion as people were returning to their apartments.”
Mr Hanney said the City of Melbourne had offered to take charge of distribution of essentials from a centre in North melbourne by the end of the weekend.
“The logistics exercise of moving food and goods, them being received and trying to set up that centre took the best part of Monday and Tuesday,” he said.
CITY BUSINESSES MAY NEVER RECOVER FROM SHUTDOWN
Food businesses within the City of Melbourne been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, with Lord Mayor Sally Capp warning more could follow.
Speaking before a parliament inquiry, Ms Capp said 7.5 per cent of the municipality’s operators in this sector had already shut for good.
She said another 8 per cent were also considering this option as foot traffic in the CBD has plummeted.
“We are 90 per cent down on pedestrian traffic year on year,” she said.
“This shows us that people are listening and adhering to the restrictions put in place to help manage the pandemic.
“But it’s also having a devastating effect on so many businesses.”
Ms Capp said daily visits to the city were expected to remain low for a significant time and that work would be needed to revive the CBD and support traders.
HOTEL QUARANTINE SECURITY FIRMS STILL ON PAYROLL
Security companies hired to run the state’s failed hotel quarantine program are still under contract more than month after the scheme ended.
Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions secretary Simon Phemister said on Wednesday contracts with the three private security companies had not yet ended.
Mr Phemister, giving evidence to the parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, said the cost of hiring the companies could not be revealed until after the contracts had ended.
The committee was told the budget for securing the hotels for the program was about $80m and deputy state controller Chris Eagle was the person responsible for the day-to-day running of the quarantine program. It was the first time Mr Eagle had been named as the person in charge.
Mr Phemister said his department raised concerns with Mr Eagle about the security arrangements and need for Victoria Police to be called in.
“(He) acknowledged and heard at all times any concerns that were raised,” Mr Phemister said. “What he did to consult experts, to get a response back to us, I’m not sure.”
Mr Phemister was quizzed on subcontracting arrangements that led to the companies outsourcing to smaller businesses and inexperienced guards, some of whom had been recruited online.
He defended the arrangement and said it was allowed under the terms of the contracts because of the size of the operation.
The Herald Sun has previously revealed a series of explosive claims, including that of lax procedures and training policies, and that some security providers charged taxpayers for shifts never worked.
The rort, known as “ghosting”, led to hazardous understaffing in hotels, with those who questioned operators allegedly being threatened.
It has also been alleged that a guard slept with guests.
The hotel program was scrapped for return travellers at the end of June.
Genomic sequencing testing found most of Victoria’s second wave could be linked to the quarantine program.
Jobs, Precincts and Regions Minister Martin Pakula denied the private security companies were hired as part of a departmental social inclusion policy.
Staff from a social inclusion department helped recruit security companies, but social inclusion wasn’t the goal, he said.
“The objective was security, it was not social inclusion and the reason that private security was used was because that instruction came to our department from the State Control Centre,” Mr Pakula said.
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