Why the Health Minister Jenny Mikakos’ resignation was a shock
Victoria’s embattled Health Minister hasn’t gone quietly, giving her department a whack and attacking Daniel Andrews in her final statement. Here’s why Jenny Mikakos’ resignation was a shock.
Victoria
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Jenny Mikakos’ resignation is a shock – because it came so early.
There had always been an underlying view that Ms Mikakos would be unlikely to survive the findings of the hotel quarantine inquiry, given her department had control of the fatally-flawed program.
But now she has gone, triggering a minor Cabinet reshuffle and a new Labor appointment to the Upper House.
And she hasn’t gone quietly, giving her department a whack on the way out for failing to brief her, and attacking the Premier Daniel Andrews, saying she strongly disagrees with parts of his statement to the inquiry on Friday afternoon.
Presumably, that’s the part where Mr Andrews says he believed her to be the accountable minister for the program for the period April 8-July 8, which was the period when the three quarantine breaches occurred.
Given the only two people to try to claim “shared accountability’’ of the program were Ms Mikakos and the DHHS secretary Kym Peake, you’d have to wonder if Ms Peake will survive as well.
And all this before counsel assisting has even had a chance to make their closing submissions to board chair Jennifer Coate.
Ms Mikakos makes another interesting statement in her resignation letter, describing her shock at a genomic report she saw on June 30.
That would be the same report Mr Andrews said he saw on the same date which led him to call the hotel quarantine inquiry.
Yet the inquiry has heard genomic reports about COVID-19 links between detained passengers and security guards had been made available to the DHHS since May 30.
The inquiry will hand its report to the Governor on November 6, and Mr Andrews will then have a month to make it public.
Give the catastrophic failures of the hotel program – claiming more than 760 lives and inflicting a $12 billion hit on the Victorian economy – across multiple government agencies and departments, it seems unlikely Ms Mikakos’ resignation will be the only one this year.
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