Come clean on Covid-19 fiasco

When the history of Australia’s second wave of coronavirus is written, the Victorian government’s bungling of hotel quarantining will feature as a major turning point. In the current climate, blame games are of secondary importance in view of the health and economic challenges that continue to face authorities. But as the Andrews government continues digging itself into a deeper hole over its failure to take up offers of help by the Australian Defence Force, its shillyshallying is an insult to the public. It also has become a distraction from dealing with the pandemic. Retired judge Jennifer Coate is leading an inquiry into the quarantine program for returning travellers. But after appearing to mislead the public, Premier Daniel Andrews and Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp need to set the record straight. The public is entitled to know the facts because nothing less will clear the air.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Crisp said the ADF was involved in initial planning of the hotel quarantine program and attended meetings on March 27 and 28. But he said: “I did not seek nor did representatives of the ADF offer assistance as part of the hotel quarantine program.” But it was offered. On Wednesday Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, backed up by Defence Department records, confirmed that “hundreds of ADF staff” had been available to assist with hotel quarantine. The timeline published by The Australian on Thursday shows that on March 27 Scott Morrison announced mandatory quarantine for international arrivals. On the same day, Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell issued orders to deploy 100 ADF personnel in each large state. And Mr Andrews even issued a press release stating it had “been agreed that ADF will engage in support”.

Mr Andrews has compounded the damage this week, telling the Victorian parliamentary estimates inquiry on Tuesday: “I don’t believe ADF support was on offer.” Not only was it available, had it been put to good use the state and the nation would have been spared much of the second wave of COVID-19. That has claimed 255 lives since July 5 and resulted in more than 5000 new cases. And it led to the stage-four lockdown, which has increased the likelihood of a depression, destroying businesses and tens of thousands of jobs and costing taxpayers billions of dollars. As of Thursday, 664 people were in Victorian hospitals with the virus, including 44 in intensive care.

The first coronavirus infection linked to hotels was announced on May 27. By June 24 Mr Crisp had decided the quarantine program needed ADF support. In a written request to the ADF, obtained by The Australian, he asked for up to 850 military personnel “to provide compliance and monitoring support … at the hotels”. As Rachel Baxendale reports, Mr Crisp said: “Due to the scale and complexity of the crisis, this is a high-priority request.” He told the ADF that since March, Victoria had managed 18,500 individuals but had identified “a lack of access to skilled resources to undertake specific functions”. As Mr Crisp noted at the time, ADF personnel in other states “have proven to be uniquely suited to roles and functions being carried out within the current environment”.

But inexplicably, Mr Crisp rescinded the request within 24 hours. He needs to explain why. So does Mr Andrews, in light of subsequent disasters in Melbourne. They need not reserve their explanations for the Coate inquiry. It is not a court, as Ms Coate has pointed out, so there is no restriction on players commenting publicly or answering questions about matters relating to the quarantine program.

Mr Andrews either has lost sight of the facts on the Morrison government’s offer of ADF support in March or, as Simon Benson speculated, he has “simply engaged in deliberate bamboozlement” to deflect some of the heat over quarantine mismanagement to Canberra. Either way, the war of words has further eroded disgruntled Victorians’ confidence in their government’s management of the COVID crisis.