Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry chief set to release findings

The Victorian Government is expected to be handed a critical report card from the hotel quarantine inquiry, with the findings about to be released.

The Victorian Government is bracing for the release on Monday of the final report of the hotel quarantine inquiry, which is expected to sharply criticise its handling of the program.

Inquiry chair Jennifer Coate’s findings follow a six-month probe into the program in which breaches at quarantine hotels seeded Melbourne’s second wave of COVID-19, infecting more than 18,000 people and killing 801.

Ahead of the findings the government has already moved to split up the Department of Health and Human Services.

The findings are expected to criticise the DHHS’s handling of the quarantine program and for the way it responded to the inquiry. Its failure to provide documents led to the final report being delayed by several months.

The careers of three senior figures have already ended.

Former health minister Jenny Mikakos and DHHS secretary Kym Peake resigned after giving evidence which was disputed by others.

Former Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos appears before the hotel quarantine inquiry in September.

Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles also resigned after giving evidence he did not believe he had called former Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton on the day the program was set up, only for phone records to show he did.

While Premier Daniel Andrews has stated he takes full responsibility, he told the inquiry he was unable to find out who made the deadly mistake of hiring private security guards.

And he insisted he did not believe the Australian Defence Force had offered to assist with security at the hotels.

Jennifer Coate AO speaks during the COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry in July.

On November 6, Ms Coate handed down interim findings about how a future quarantine program should be conducted, including the possibility of home quarantine for some returning passengers.

Mr Andrews did not accept that recommendation when he restarted the hotel quarantine for returning overseas travellers.