Coronavirus: Andrews letters: PM’s offers met by silence

Daniel Andrews sticks with his position on ADF help despite Scott Morrison writing to him three times offering troops.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison personally wrote to Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews three times in the space of a week in early July to offer the support of the defence force as it became apparent the state’s bungled hotel quarantine program had sparked a second-wave outbreak of coronavirus.

In a 149-page submission to the hotel quarantine inquiry, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Defence Department revealed Mr Morrison repeatedly reached out to Mr Andrews reiterating the offer.

“When the COVID-19 case numbers began to escalate in ­Victoria by the end of June 2020, the Prime Minister wrote to ­Premier Andrews on three separate occasions (4 July 2020, 6 July 2020 and 11 July 2020) reaffirming the ­commonwealth’s preparedness to continue the provision of ADF support to Victoria as needed,” the submission stated.

Revelations of the Prime Minister’s offers of help to Mr And­rews came as the Premier said on Wednesday that he stood by his statement to a state parliamentary committee hearing last month that it was “fundamentally incorrect to assert that there was hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no”.

Despite the comments appearing to be at odds with an email exchange between Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet head Phil Gaetjens and Mr Andrews’ top bureaucrat, Chris Eccles, Mr Andrews said: “All I can say is the statements I’ve made are accurate. I stand by those statements and I’ll be providing evidence, I’ll be assisting the inquiry next week, and it’s just not appropriate for me to be running­ debates back and forth.’’

 

 

The newly released correspondence from Mr Morrison, which was sent a week after Victoria’s international quarantine program was suspended and the government moved to close nine public housing towers affected by the fresh outbreak, ­followed earlier offers of ADF assistance over several months that Victoria rebuffed.

According to the evidence, the commonwealth made offers of ADF support to the Victorian government from the onset of the hotel quarantine program in late March through to mid-April when it was approaching capacity, but was told the program was progressing well and there was no requirement for ADF “boots on ground” support.

By mid-May, the corresponence reveals, Victoria’s ­Emergency Management Commissioner, Andrew Crisp advised Major General Paul Kenny, head of the ADF’s COVID-19 taskforce, that “the situation … has improved to such an extent that it is unlikely that Victoria would need any further ADF support except planners inside of EMV”.

By the end of June it became apparent that the hotel quarantine outbreak was out of control, with dozens of security guards and their close contacts infected.

The state was forced to reintroduce restrictions, initially for hotspot suburbs but then eventually metropolitan Melbourne and the entire state.

Victorian CHO Brett Sutton appears at hotel quarantine inquiry. Supplied

On June 25 the state accepted support from about 200 ADF personnel to assist with a testing blitz, having rescinded an earlier request for 850 ADF staff to help the state’s Health Department with the mandatory quarantine of people returning from overseas.

Almost all of Victoria’s second wave coronavirus cases have been linked to infection-­control breaches at the Stamford Plaza and the Rydges on Swanston quarantine hotel. The state stopped accepting returning international travellers on June 30.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Wednesday he had been unaware that casual security guards were employed for the hotel quarantine program until after the outbreaks.

In his witness statement to the inquiry, Professor Sutton said “with the benefit of hindsight” hiring casual security was a risk.

“I can see that using a highly ­casualised workforce, generally from a lower socio-economic background, where that means that poor leave provisions limit how one can care for and financially support one’s family if unwell,” Professor Sutton said. “ In addition, many of these staff might combine multiple, piecemeal jobs across different industries to maintain an adequate income, creating transmission risk.”

Professor Sutton’s statement reveals he was advised on May 29 that there may have been a risk associated with security guard PPE practices, including that masks and gloves they used were non-standard and they lacked adequate training in hand hygiene and PPE use. He also said he had had concerns about the management of the program and would have preferred to have had more oversight.

Professor Sutton told the inquiry that, together with Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen, he endorsed an April 8 email written by Public Health Commander Finn Romanes requesting an urgent review of the program.

“There appears to be a lack of a unified plan for this program, and there is considerable concern that the lead roles have not had an opportunity to be satisfied there is a policy and set of processes to manage the healthcare and welfare of detainees, for whom the program is accountable,” Dr Romanes wrote in the email addressed to Operation Soteria commanders Pam Williams and Merrin Barmett as well as Department of Health and Human Services deputy secretary Jacinda de Witts and Deputy State Controller Chris Eagle.

Professor Sutton told the inquiry he supported Dr Romanes in calling out issues that “required urgent review”.

Professor Sutton’s own concerns about the use of security guards were revealed in June in an email to Australian Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy in which the Victorian health official described them as the “wrong cohort”. Professor Murphy subsequently offered ADF support and suggested paying casual workers while they were isolating.

The inquiry continues.

The email in which Brendan Murphy offered to help, and Prof Sutton said the ‘workforce is the wrong cohort’. Picture: Supplied