The severity of Victoria’s latest lockdown is no accident. It is the continuation of the systems breakdown that led to the death of 801 people last year.
Victoria’s occupational health and safety rules are clear. Those deaths required prosecutions and a change in the systems. If private enterprise managers had been involved in an industrial accident killing 801 people prosecutions would have been swift. But because ministers and public servants were involved I believe WorkSafe Victoria was reluctant to undertake any prosecutions or demand systems changes.
Back on May 6, when Victoria had no infections outside of quarantine, I wrote: “Much of blame for the continuing mismanagement lies fairly and squarely at the feet of WorkSafe Victoria which has simply not done its job and, as a result, the community is in danger.” Those words were chillingly accurate.
The subsequent breakdowns in almost every aspect of managing the latest Victorian infection breakout were inevitable, but avoidable.
It is perhaps justifiable the Commonwealth can’t be expected to rescue a delinquent state from its own poor systems and lack of action by such a key body as WorkSafe.
Having said that it’s important to recognise other areas of administration and actions outside the Victorian government that have contributed to the crisis.
The actual infection came to Victoria via a mistake in South Australian quarantine. And the Commonwealth’s failure to inject staff and patients in health care and aged care facilities is not acceptable. Defence’s medical forces need to be urgently brought into battle zone conditions to vaccinate aged care patients and workers — perhaps 24 hours a day — starting with Victoria.
In a democracy, when a government fails, the opposition and the media have a vital role to play. The opposition and parts of the local media skilfully uncovered and highlighted the specific areas of breakdown but did not connect the dots so that the community understood that what they were seeing was a total systems failure that had started with the deaths of 801 people. WorkSafe’s clear role in this systems breakdown was ignored by both the opposition and parts of the local press.
I emphasise strongly that just because people are prosecuted does not mean that they are guilty. In Australia in non-tax matters we operate under the English justice system where a person is innocent until proven guilty.
But where systems have broken down in occupational health and safety Victoria has laws that are designed to bring about the management changes required to protect the community. And in the Victorian public service and ministry, once some at the top are removed, there are many people “buried” who actually know what to do in a crisis.
Again, back on May 6, I highlighted the reporting of The Australian’s Ewin Hannan and Damon Johnston in showing that the Victorian quarantine system is still in chaos and the state’s low infection rates have been achieved more by good luck than proper management.
At the weekend Nine Media’s Chip Le Grand and Melissa Cunningham exposed that the Victorian government had been unable to deploy “a hi-tech management system” it bought three months ago to support mass vaccination. It purchased the system from Microsoft believing it could be quickly adapted to Victoria. The system failed partly because bedding down the platform had not been given priority owing to the shortage of vaccines and the tepid community demand.
Buying a high-risk system in a crisis and then not giving it the attention required is a kindergarten mistake and led to chaos in vaccinations. For example, in the old Ford factory in Geelong workers were forced back to pen and paper to somehow sort out the mess.
Around the country QR systems are working brilliantly. I was in Queensland recently and I was simply not allowed to enter cafe restaurant etc without registering my QR code. NSW is the same. In Victoria community QR registration was not enforced, with totally predictable consequences for those trying to contact trace when infection broke out.
And the failures keep coming.
Thanks to Lindsay Fox, Victoria cottoned onto the idea of a Darwin-style quarantine at either Avalon airport or on the Commonwealth land adjacent to its pet quarantine, Mickleham, which was close to Melbourne airport — so the Victorian government favoured Mickleham.
Someone in the first grade would have known that first the Victorian government had to check with the Commonwealth to see if the Mickleham area was available to start a Darwin-style quarantine. Nobody bothered but instead spent a couple of months working on the Mickleham project only to be told the land was not available. So now it’s Avalon.
But the Victorian government does not have the systems or ability to run such a facility. The Commonwealth, using the talent it has in Darwin, must set up the systems and operate it until Victorians are trained.
Is there any hope? Yes, Victorians are queuing to be vaccinated in huge numbers to beat the systems.
Some of Australia’s top OHS lawyers are advising the chief executive of Self-Employed Australia, Ken Phillips, on how to make it harder and harder for WorkSafe to continue to sweep the issues under carpet.
Victorians are contributing money to Self-Employed Australia to fund radio advertising so that ordinary Victorians can understand the WorkSafe issues.
By June 30 WorkSafe must state their attitude to 142 prosecution requests by Self-Employed Australia covering 16 people. My hopes that WorkSafe will do its job are fading so there is work to be done.
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