Tapes solve the mystery of Victoria’s COVID hotel whodunit

All involved insist nobody knew who decided to use private security guards to run hotel quarantine – but it was all caught on a tape.

Sometimes in the middle of a pandemic it’s hard to see the wood for the trees.

As ministers, police, and even Victoria’s Premier Dan Andrews fronted an inquiry this week to declare nobody knew who decided to use private security guards to run the coronavirus hotel quarantine, you could be forgiven for assuming amnesia was infectious.

On Friday, the state’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos even resigned over the fiasco, still insisting she didn’t know whose idea it was.

But in fact, we already do know. The decision was caught on a tape.

And what that tape confirms is the decision to use private security was based entirely on Victoria Police’s strong “preference” not to do the job.

It’s also recorded in text messages and hand scribbled notes tendered as evidence to the hotel quarantine inquiry.

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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty

While it would be wrong to assume if police or ADF were used it would all be different, we do know that the vast majority of cases that started the second wave can be linked back to that hotel quarantine scheme.

The decision to use private security can be traced back to three crucial meetings on March 27 as officials rushed to “operationalise” the Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement that all returning travellers would go into hotel quarantine.

At lunchtime on March 27, the national cabinet decided to enforce mandatory quarantine.

Before the Prime Minister has even announced it, then Victorian Police Commissioner Graham Ashton had sent a text message to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw insisting the AFP sort it out.

“Mate. Question. Why wouldn’t AFP guard people At The Hotel?” Ashton wrote to Kershaw at 1:12pm on March 27.

Victoria Police's then Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton.

At 1:16pm, just four minutes after the first text with Kershaw, the Victorian Police Commissioner was also busily texting the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles wanting to know whether police will be involved.

By 1:22pm there was an answer. He told Kershaw that private security will be used.

“Mate. My advise [sic] is ADF will do passenger transfer and private security will be used,’’ Ashton wrote.

“OK that’s new,” Kershaw replied.

“I think that’s the deal set up by our Department of Premier and Cabinet,” Ashton said.

“I understand NSW will be a different arrangement. I spoke to Mick F [NSW Police Commissioner, Mick Fuller].”

By 2pm, there was a meeting involving then Victorian Police Commissioner Graham Ashton, Police Minister Lisa Neville and Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp.

In scribbled notes, Graham Ashton wrote “Private security, “Police back up”, “ADF”. Crisp noted: “Private security” and “ADF”.

Just moments later, at 2:17pm on Friday afternoon, the Prime Minister walked out into his courtyard at Parliament House to announce the hotel quarantine plan that will operate from midnight on Saturday night.

The clock was ticking as the states rushed to get the hotel quarantine scheme up and running in less than 36 hours.

At 4.30pm, the first teleconference on “Operation Soteria”, Victoria’s hotel quarantine scheme was held. On the phone was Crisp, Assistant Commissioner Mick Grainger and Australian Defence Force Colonel John Molnar.

This meeting was recorded.

A meeting transcript.

“I understand the preference of Victoria Police, or the Chief Commissioner, is that private security be the first line of security, and the police to respond as required. Is that your understanding, Mick?” Mr Crisp said, according to a transcript.

“Absolutely that’s our preference,” Mr Grainger replied.

It’s all on the tape. During the meeting, text messages continued to fly between the Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp and Victoria Police.

Crisp even stepped out of the meeting to take calls from the Chief Commissioner of Police Graham Ashton and he then texted Grainger, who was in the meeting he stepped out of, about what Ashton wanted.

“I stepped out to speak to Graham and I let him know you’re in this meeting as he’s only just come out of VSB. He made it clear in VSB that private security is the first security option at hotels/hotels and not police,’’ he wrote.

In the face of such mounting evidence, it’s bizarre that Ashton tried to tell the inquiry that he didn’t have a preference over who was in charge of hotel quarantine.

“Absolutely untrue,” Ashton replied, under questioning from – get this – Richard Attiwill QC, acting for the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

That’s right, the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s QC was pointing out to the police commissioner that he had that preference and that preference was that police not do the job.

So, make no mistake, when Premier Dan Andrews told the inquiry on Friday that there was “collective responsibility” he was also talking about the cops.

Victoria's hotel quarantine situation became a disaster.

And it’s clear enough from the questioning at the COVID-19 inquiry that the counsel assisting is probing a working theory that police kicked up a stink over the fact they didn’t want to babysit the travellers.

In his witness statement to the inquiry, Mr Andrews was asked “Who made the decision to engage private security contractors in the Hotel Quarantine Program?”

“I do not know who made that decision,” he wrote.

But the Premier knows. In fact, he alluded to it during his own evidence at 3pm last Friday. When he was asked if it would be unusual that then-Police Commissioner Graham Ashton was not consulted in the formulation of a program such as hotel quarantine he offered a tart response.

“That would certainly not accord with custom and practice that I have observed throughout my time in public life and throughout my time as a Minister of the crown and throughout my time as the premier of the state,’’ he replied.

In other words, Victorian public servants and, more significantly ministers, were too scared to question or challenge the police because they didn’t want to be accused of taking cops away from frontline policing to guard a bunch of tourists and expats locked in their room eating UberEats.

Remember too, the decision to introduce a curfew in the state was also designed to make it easier for police in an operational sense and was not based on health advice.

And now, more than 700 Victorians are dead. The inquiry findings should be interesting.

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