Daniel Andrews says Brett Sutton doing job he’s best at

Daniel Andrews has defended a decision by health bureaucrats to stop his Chief Health Officer acting­ as state controller of the coronavirus pandemic response.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton hears Premier Daniel Andrews speak during the daily Covid brief. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Daniel Andrews has defended a decision by health bureaucrats to stop his Chief Health Officer acting­ as state controller of the coronavirus pandemic response — as occurs in other states — in favour of appointing two departmental emergency management officials.

Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry­ heard on Thursday that Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secret­ary Melissa Skilbeck had made the decision, against Professor Brett Sutton’s wishes, to instead appoint bureaucrats Andrea Spiteri­ and Jason Helps.

Fronting Friday’s media conferen­ce alongside Professor Sutton’s deputy, Allen Cheng, Mr Andrews defended the decision to sideline his absent Chief Health Officer.

“I think it is really important to understand that the state controller is a multi-agency co-ordina­tion function,” the Premier said.

“Dr Sutton has got enough to get on with, providing detailed expert­ epidemiological and public health advice. That’s where his focus is and needs to be.

“The role of the state controller is a much broader role — much, much broader — and in my judgment, I think that if you had a different arrangement and you were asking someone to both provide expert advice in their ­primary field, as well as co-ordin­ation of many things that are well away from medicine and science and public health, I don’t think that’s the best use of the best skills.

“The arrangements we have in place are working well. There will always be debates and discussions about whether they could be otherwise. I don’t have the luxury of having those debates.”

Ms Skilbeck told Thursday’s hearing that Professor Sutton was opposed to her decision.

Asked if he was “on the same page” as his Chief Health Officer, Mr Andrews said: “I wouldn’t say that at all. You can have differences of opinion.

“The arrangements are appropriate, and if that was a view, it’s certainly not a request or a view that Brett’s ever put to me.

“He’s just getting on and doing his job. I’m getting on doing mine. We work well together, very closely together, and I think the arrangements we have got in place are exactly the right ones.”

Mr Andrews also on Friday defended his position on Melbourne’s curfew, saying it “will not be changing”, despite calls from human rights advocates and business for it to be overturned.

The Premier‘s defence comes after Professor Sutton and Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton distanced themselves from the measure this week, saying it had not been imposed­ ­on their advice.

Under the Andrews government’s reopening roadmap, the curfew will not be lifted until October­ 26 — and then only if Victoria reaches a threshold of a 14-day daily average of fewer than five cases, and no cases with an unknown source in that fortnight.

The 14-day daily average for metropolitan Melbourne was 65.3 on Friday and the regional 14-day daily average was 4.7, following­ 43 new cases statewide in the previous 24 hours.

The state has had 141 cases of COVID-19 with an unknown source of infection in 14 days, including 134 cases in metropolitan Melbourne and seven in regional Victoria.

The Department of Health and Human Services is using a 14-day period 48 hours earlier than the 14-day period used to calcul­ate the current 14-day daily average, “due to the time required to fully investigate a case and assign its mode of acquisition.”

Nine deaths in the 24 hours to Friday brought Victoria’s COVID death toll to 710.