Hotel guards’ roles changed ‘drastically’, inquiry hears

Guards were asked to accompany returned travellers on breaks before the guest had been tested, an inquiry hears.

Ishu Gupta during questioning at the inquiry into Victoria's hotel quarantine scheme.

Overseas arrivals quarantining in Melbourne hotels who “did a runner” while on a fresh air walk should be let go by the security guards accompanying them, an inquiry has heard.

The inquiry into the ill-fated hotel quarantine program heard that in early April the Victorian Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions pressured one of its contracted security firms, Wilson Security, to support letting quarantined arrivals out of the hotel for fresh air despite the risks.

One guard was threatened with a $20,000 fine for disobeying an authorised official when he raised concerns about the practice, which had not been part of the original arrangement, Greg Watson, Wilson Security’s general manager of regional operations in Victoria and Tasmania told the inquiry.

Mr Watson said guards were worried about their liability if a quarantined hotel guest looked to abscond while they were on a walk, or arranged to meet friends or tried to bring contraband including alcohol back into the hotel.

“We were very much asked to support the process,” Mr Watson said of the government’s insistence on a change in procedure to allow fresh air walks, an issue that emerged in the early days of the program.

“If anybody was to do a runner or abscond, we were to let them go, and then it would be advised to police who would follow them up under the Quarantine Act.”

Mr Watson also said his company and the department came to an agreement to conduct a cursory “footy bag check” for contraband such as alcohol in care packages being provided to quarantined guests by their families.

Government officials wanted the security guards to oversee these searches, but they had no legal power to do so, Mr Watson said.

“The security officer doesn‘t actually have the power to put their hands in your bag and move your items around,” he said.

These were some of the early issues that arose as the government scrambled to quickly pull together the hotel quarantine program now blamed for being the catalyst for Victoria’s COVID-19 second wave.

Mr Watson provided the inquiry with a list of 23 incidents that occurred during the program in relation to the behaviour of security guards, noting 21 of them occurred in the first fortnight in April as the huge undertaking bedded down.

Incidents included guards being found asleep on the job, refusing to wear personal protective equipment and making inappropriate advances toward guests.

The inquiry also heard that carpooling may have been a cause of transmitting coronavirus between security guards employed at the hotels.

Mina Attalah from United Risk Management, one of the security firms subcontracted to supply guards at the hotels, said some of his guards who tested positive at the Stamford Plaza had car pooled to work, and also worked on the same floor.

After the outbreak, subcontracting firms were directed by MSS Security, their head contractor, to tell guards to stop carpooling, the inquiry heard.