Coronavirus: hotel quarantine inquiry to make extension call

Hotel quarantine inquiry chair Jennifer Coate will decide in days whether to request an ­extension of her November 6 ­reporting deadline.

Hotel Quarantine Inquiry The Hon. Jennifer Coate AO.

Hotel quarantine inquiry chair Jennifer Coate will decide in days whether to request an ­extension of her November 6 ­reporting deadline as she examines new statements by key figures including Premier Daniel Andrews and the state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.

Ms Coate will announce this week whether the inquiry will seek an extension after receiving the new statements as well as copies of the phone records of key players, including staff in the Premier’s private office.

Mr Sutton and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Kym Peake have until Tuesday night to provide new statements to the ­inquiry. As well as Mr Andrews, the Police Minister Lisa Neville, former police chief commissioner, Graham Ashton and the former secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet Chris Eccles are making new statements.

The inquiry is considering who decided to engage private security guards for the hotel quarantine program in late March instead of using police and Australian Defence Force officers, a decision now seen as a catalyst for allowing the coronavirus to escape and spread across Melbourne.

In a letter sent to the inquiry last week, DHHS lawyers said an employee raised concerns some relevant emails had not been given to the inquiry on September 28.

Professor Sutton had told the lawyers he stood by his previous evidence that he was not aware of the use of private security until media reports in May. The ­department’s lawyers said Professor Sutton had instructed them that he had not needed to clarify his evidence because he did not read the details of the emails and so they did not need to be provided.

Tony Neal QC, counsel ­assisting the inquiry, said Professor Sutton would be asked to provide an affidavit responding to questions about the emails.

Answers have also been sought from Professor Sutton and Ms Peake about a six-page email chain between DHHS officials, including an April 1 email by a senior bureaucrat headed: “Information — Chain of Command — people in detention”.

Mr Eccles has been asked to provide a further affidavit to the inquiry after phone records showed he spoke to Mr Ashton for 135 seconds in a pivotal six-minute window during the planning of hotel quarantine.

Ms Coate said last week that, “most unfortunately”, the new developments might unsettle the due date for the inquiry’s report.

The inquiry could recall witnesses, although Mr Neal has said it “must be emphasised that the relevant parties are being asked to address novel material not the subject of previous ­evidence”.