Hard lessons from Ruby Princess litany of errors

Bret Walker SC has done Australians an important service in his forensic, comprehensive report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess cruise ship fiasco. The findings, based on detailed facts and the legislated responsibilities of state and federal bodies, underline the need for health authorities in all jurisdictions, especially qualified “experts’’, to avoid similar errors, such as delays in testing vital swabs and sloppy decision-making. In the case of the Ruby Princess, the price of those missteps was the deaths of 28 passengers who contracted the virus on the ship in March and more than 1000 infections that were traced to the outbreak.

The public, especially Victorians, are looking to the COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine inquiry, which resumes hearings in Melbourne on Monday, for a similarly informative, politically dispassionate expose. The value of such inquiries is not only to hold authorities to account but to avoid the repeat of grave errors with life-threatening consequences and destructive repercussions for the wider society and the national economy. Like the Ruby Princess during the first wave of COVID-19, the hotel quarantine debacle has been a major harbinger of coronavirus cases during the second wave. As senior counsel assisting the Victoria inquiry, Tony Neal QC, said, “it might even be that every case of COVID-19 in Victoria in recent weeks could be sourced to the hotel quarantine program”.

In his report, Mr Walker concluded that in light of information available, the decision by the NSW Health Expert Panel to assess the risk on board the vessel as “low” — meaning, in effect, “do nothing” — was inexplicable and unjustifiable. It allowed 2647 passengers to disembark from the vessel and disperse into the community without adequate coronavirus checks. The delay in obtaining test results for the swabs taken from the Ruby Princess on the morning of March 19, which should have been tested immediately, was inexcusable. The NSW Health expert panel and the ministers responsible for overseeing them, Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard, especially have a litany of questions to answer arising from the 320-page report.

The commission has also demonstrated the folly of politicians trying to misuse the pandemic to score political points. Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally was initially inclined to blame Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and the Australian Border Force for the fiasco. So was Ms Berejiklian. In March, Yoni Bashan reported that she told her partyroom meeting that ABF officials were ­responsible for the catastrophic decision to release 2700 cruise ship passengers into the community, risking contagion across the nation. But Mr Walker’s report was clear: “Neither the ABF nor any ABF officers played any part in the mishap.’’ To the contrary, as Mr Walker said, in view of their lack of medical or epidemiological expertise, it is as well for the public good that the ABF or the Department of Home Affairs do not bear any responsibility.

The one “fly in the ointment’’ as regards the commonwealth, Mr Walker found, was the response to a summons to a commonwealth officer to attend the commission. It was met with steps towards proceedings in the High Court. “Quite how this met the Prime Minister’s early assurance of full co-operation with the commission escapes me,’’ Mr Walker said.

In light of the disaster that unfolded from the Ruby Princess, moves afoot to better protect maritime borders from COVID-19 are worthwhile. Bashan reports on Monday that all passengers and crew aboard cruise ships would be required to declare they did not have coronavirus symptoms under protocols being considered by the Morrison government and the states and territories. Those caught lying about such symptoms would face significant penalties. The measures are already in place for commercial vessels. As Mr Walker acknowledged, the failures in decision-making that led to the Ruby Princess catastrophe have largely been recognised by the expert panel’s physicians. Making recommendations to such experts, as he noted, would be inappropriate and unhelpful when they amount to no more than “do your job’’.