Coronavirus Australia: Jenny Mikakos tells hotel quarantine inquiry ‘I don’t know who made decision either’

Victoria’s Health Minister says private security guards were working for two months before she found out.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has said private security guards were working at quarantine hotels for two months before she found out, a damaging admission that increases pressure on Daniel Andrews as he prepares to give evidence to the hotels inquiry.

Ahead of the Victorian Premier’s appearance at the inquiry on Friday, Ms Mikakos joined an array of ministers, senior bureaucrats, police and emergency services chiefs who claimed not to know who made the decision to deploy guards to the hotels. The much-anticipated appearance of Mr Andrews, who will be the inquiry’s final witness, shapes as a major test of his leadership and comes as he prepares to announce an expected easing of Melbourne’s lockdown restrictions on Sunday.

During evidence to the inquiry on Thursday, Ms Mikakos said she did not find out about the guards at the hotels for two months after they were deployed by the government, despite her department being the lead agency for the troubled quarantine scheme.

The Department of Health and Human Services assumed lead responsibility for the quarantine program in late March but Ms Mikakos said she became aware of the use of private security guards only after a COVID-19 outbreak at the Rydges hotel in late May: “That’s to the best of my recollection … because I would have had no reason to turn my mind to issues around security guards until we had that first case and the first outbreak at the Rydges hotel.”

She said it just hadn’t come to her attention as the contractual responsibility for the security guards lay with the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions.

Asked in writing by the inquiry who made the decision to engage private security contractors, she said: “I was not part of any decision-making process to use private security contractors in the HQP. I do not know who made this decision.

“I believe I first became aware of the use of private security guards contracted by DJPR in the HQP after the Rydges outbreak occurred in late May 2020.

“In particular, at around that time, I was advised by the DHHS public health team that the private security contractors engaged to participate in the HQP had the contractual responsibility to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention and control training to their staff.”

In contrast to evidence by Jobs Minister Martin Pakula, Ms Mikakos insisted the scheme was a multi-agency response with shared accountability. She said she “was exasperated and absolutely determined to replace the security guards” at hotel quarantine by the time the outbreak occurred at the Stamford Plaza, saying it became apparent to her they were a “high-risk workforce”.

The hotel is one of two linked to nearly 100 per cent of Victoria’s second wave coronavirus cases.

On the multi-agency response overseeing the program, Ms Mikakos said she came to think it was “too many cooks spoiling the broth” after the outbreaks.

She said her department, the control agency, was unable to address issues with security guards because their contracts had been overseen by the DJPR. She admitted she was not told Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton was sidelined from leading the state’s response to the pandemic.

She told the inquiry that despite declaring a state of emergency in March, she was first briefed on who her department secretary had appointed as lead in July.

“It’s just not an issue I’m particularly focused on,” she said.

Ms Mikakos said government ministers weren’t typically involved in human resources decisions and she assumed Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kym Peake had appointed the right people. She said she first learnt Professor Sutton opposed someone other than him being appointed state controller when he gave evidence to the inquiry.

Ms Mikakos also did not recall reading emails sent to her electoral and parliamentary offices from hotel quarantine guests in March and April.

“I’ve read these emails as part of the bundle last night. I don’t recall having seen them at the time they were sent,” she said.

“I wouldn’t expect emails of this nature to be escalated to a minister necessarily.”

She said she was advised there were unhappy returned travellers in hotel quarantine but assumed the complaints were being handled by the DJPR.

The inquiry heard that the complaints related to food, medical issues and cleanliness.

Ms Mikakos said she would not support the engagement of private security contractors in any future iteration of the program. “COVID-19 is a highly contagious virus that has challenged many workforces,” she said. “I am aware of healthcare workers in hospitals with years of experience in IPC, and wearing higher levels of PPE, nevertheless becoming infected, as have clinicians from the ADF working at testing sites wearing PPE, as have members of Victoria Police wearing PPE.

“In my view, there is no ‘silver bullet’ workforce to respond to the risk of a highly contagious virus but there is an unacceptable risk in using a largely unskilled and casualised workforce, as we have seen recently also in the private aged-care sector.”

Ms Mikakos told the inquiry she could see the “collaborative approach” between agencies was not addressing the risk of further outbreaks. When counsel assisting the inquiry, Ben Ihle, asked her whether the risks she had seen had materialised, she said: “Yes, they did.”

Mr Ihle asked: “And we had the outbreaks that have now been responsible for an additional 18,374 positive cases since?” “Yes.”

Mr Ihle: “And that has resulted in an additional 752 deaths of Victorians?”

Ms Mikakos: “Tragically, we’ve had many more deaths during the second wave, yes.”

Mr Andrews said he was confident his ministers understood they were accountable for their portfolios. “All ministers are fully aware of the accountability for those matters that go on within the portfolio,” he said.

“That’s a well-understood concept and I would be very confident that everyone in the government fully understands it.”

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said Victorians deserved the answers that Ms Mikakos had failed to deliver during her appearance at the inquiry.