Coronavirus: Daniel Andrews says ‘clearly a failure’ on bungled quarantine

As Victorians face a return to severe restrictions, the premier admitted to ‘unacceptable’ breaches in hotel quarantine.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he does not believe independent oversight of his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic could have mitigated the bungling of the state’s hotel quarantine system.

Announcing the lockdown of 10 northern and western Melbourne postcodes on Tuesday, Mr Andrews revealed genomic sequencing had linked a large proportion of the state’s second wave of new cases to infection control breaches in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.

Six of Tuesday’s new cases were linked to a cluster in security contractors at the Stamford Plaza quarantine hotel, bringing the total in that outbreak to 29. A further 17 cases have previously been linked to an outbreak in security guards at the Rydges on Swanston quarantine hotel.

Admitting there had “clearly” been a “failure” in the operation of the program, Mr Andrews on Tuesday announced all international flights would be diverted away from Melbourne for the next fortnight, Corrections Victoria staff would take over security roles, and an inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine system, led by a former judge, would be established with a report due in 8-10 weeks.

Quizzed on Wednesday over why it had taken the government so long to respond to the hotel quarantine breaches, given the first case in a security guard at Rydges on Swanston was made public on May 27, Mr Andrews said it was not an “accurate characterisation” to say the government had take too long to acknowledge the problem and act.

“There’s been a number of changes made in hotel quarantine over a lengthy period of time,” the Premier said. “Yesterday I made clear to you that some of the behaviour, we believe that we’ve remedied that, and that was remedied some time ago.

“I spoke to you on the weekend, I’ve spoken on many different occasions, and so has the chief health officer, about different reviews, different changes to practices.

“The key point yesterday was that for the first time we had the most comprehensive genomic sequencing reports that I’ve certainly been briefed on throughout the entire pandemic.

“That left me in no doubt, that if not right now but certainly back weeks and weeks ago, there was a significant infection control problem, and on that basis the inquiry has been announced.”

ADF personnel at a COVID-19 testing site in Fawkner. Picture: Aaron Francis

Mr Andrews said he expected to announce the terms of reference and the retired judge appointed to oversee the inquiry in coming days.

The Andrews government earlier this year dismissed calls for independent oversight of its pandemic response, instead setting up an inquiry by the parliamentary Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, the majority of whose members are Labor MPs.

Asked whether independent oversight could have helped mitigate the hotel quarantine breaches, Mr Andrews said: “No, I don‘t think that’s right at all.”

“The genomic sequencing report arrived yesterday, and the chief health officer made it very clear to us the results of that genomic sequencing and we’ve acted without a moment’s delay,” he said. “We received it yesterday morning, and we’ve made some decisions the afternoon of the same day.”

Challenged over the fact that issues with hotel quarantine breaches were raised more than a month ago, Mr Andrews said he accepted there had been “unacceptable infection control breaches in hotel quarantine”.

“It‘s why there’ve been changes made in the way hotel quarantine operates, and it’s why we’re going to have an inquiry to determine exactly what has gone on here. I don’t think there’s any dispute between what you’re putting to me, and the actions that I’m taking.”

Mr Andrews said he had asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to divert international flights away from Melbourne to other Australian capitals for the next fortnight out of an “abundance of caution”, with prison staff from Corrections Victoria stepping in to oversee hotel quarantine security.

“I have thanked the Premiers of the states where it is logical where those flights will go, principally New South Wales and Queensland, for them playing that role,” he said.

Mr Andrews said he wasn’t aware of reports that NSW had rejected requests to receive flights diverted from Melbourne due to the additional cost of hotel quarantine.

“I haven’t seen those reports. I‘ve been having numerous communications with the Premier of NSW in recent days, and indeed over many, many weeks. That’s certainly not been an issue that’s been raised with me,” he said.

Staff direct traffic in massive queues waiting to get into a pop-up test site in Melbourne. Picture: Getty

The Andrews government has previously refused to name the companies involved in employing the hotel quarantine security contractors.

In response to questions from The Australian last week, a government spokeswoman said there were three companies involved in providing hotel quarantine security, some of which may be using subcontractors, and that Stamford Plaza and Rydges on Swanston were serviced by different companies.

Asked on Wednesday which companies were responsible, Mr Andrews said: “I’d need to come back to you in terms of the list.”

“There are a number of different players, and some of them that were involved in early stages were not involved for very long, and they‘re not involved now. I’m happy to try and come back to you with some further details.”

Challenged over the fact that his office had been asked to name the companies last week, Mr Andrews said: “I can only take your request. You didn’t put that question to me (personally).

“I’ll be happy to follow that up. I’m not sure whether there are commercial issues, whether they’re contract terms, I’m not sure, but whatever information we can get to you, we will.”

Asked what the tender process was for appointing the companies, Mr Andrews said such information would be “the subject of the inquiry that will be run”.

“I’m not going to be running that inquiry, and none of us are. A former judge is going to do that work, and I think that’s the most appropriate thing,” he said.

“Be in no doubt, these are unacceptable breaches. But that’s happened. That has occurred. We can’t change that. We can finally try and understand exactly what the nature of that is.

“What we’re doing now, and what we’re exclusively focused on, is making sure that we deal with the challenge that that has presented to us, and that is at least a significant number of these new cases can be traced back to those breaches.”

Asked whether the judicial report would be made public, Mr Andrews said: “It’ll be handled in the usual way, so I would expect yes.”