Police minister Lisa Neville left red-faced after hotel quarantine claim

Two days after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for coronavirus, footage has emerged of Lisa Neville claiming there would be no spread in Victoria’s quarantine hotels.

A video of Victoria’s quarantine minister confidently ruling out the possibility of infections spreading in the state’s hotel program, has surfaced days after two people contracted the virus while under the government’s watch.

Police Minister Lisa Neville has been left red faced after film of her appearing before the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee in December surfaced.

In the short 1 minute clip, Ms Neville was asked by Nationals MP Danny O’Brien if people who contracted coronavirus inside a hotel would be compensated.

“That is not going to happen, Mr O’Brien,” Ms Neville told the panel referring to potential transmission.

Pushing for an answer Mr O’Brien said: “We would like to think it will not happen. I am just wondering: there will be a whole lot of people in these hotels.”

To which, Ms Neville responded: “At this stage it is a very hypothetical question, and I do not believe it is going to happen.”

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien has slammed the Minister not taking the risks seriously late last year when it was already known that the virus was mutating into a more infectious strain.

“Labor’s complacency when it comes to hotel quarantine is a clear and present danger to Victorians,” he said.

“The Minister in charge of hotel quarantine assured Victorians that the virus couldn’t escape.

“She was wrong and now thousands of people are locked down.

“Having bungled hotel quarantine once, causing the second wave, the community deserves better than this arrogance and complacency from Labor’s Lisa Neville.”

Ms Neville has hit back saying: “I have always been clear in public comments and at PAEC that no environment can be completely free of risk because this is a highly infectious virus.

“We also know that the virus continues to change, including into new strains and that both nationally agreed protocols and our quarantine program needs to be constantly reviewed on the basis of expert advice.

“Investigations are still ongoing into the potential transmission of coronavirus between two hotel residents and to date there has been no evidence of a breach of infection control procedure.”

She did not comment on whether people who contracted the virus in hotel quarantine would be compensated.