Hotel Inquiry: Daniel Andrews and staffers to hand over phone and text record
As the hotel inquiry investigation tries to determine who decided to deploy private security guards, Daniel Andrews and staff will handover their phone records.
Daniel Andrews and his senior staff will hand over phone records and text messages to the inquiry into the hotel quarantine breakdown as the investigation tries to determine who decided to deploy private security guards.
The Australian has confirmed that the inquiry, headed by former Family Court judge Jennifer Coate, separately asked Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles to hand over his phone records for March 27.
The records, including messages sent on encrypted apps, could reveal who told former chief commissioner Graham Ashton in a six-minute window that day that private security and not police would be used to guard hotels.
The Victorian Premier said on Sunday that he did not speak to Mr Ashton during that period and did not believe his staff had either.
The vast majority of coronavirus cases in Victoria can be traced back to travellers who returned to Australia in mid-May and went into hotel quarantine.
The question of who decided to use private security, and not police or Australian Defence Force officers, has become a central issue for the Coate inquiry.
Evidence presented to the inquiry showed Mr Ashton texted Mr Eccles at 1.16pm on March 27 asking whether he was aware of suggestions that Victoria Police would be required to guard overseas arrivals in hotel quarantine.
Between 1.16 and 1.22pm, Mr Ashton received a phone call advising of arrangements to use private security but he said he could not remember who spoke to him.
At 1.22pm, Mr Ashton texted Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw saying he had been advised that the “ADF will do passenger transfer and private security will be used”.
“I think that’s the deal set up by our DPC,” he wrote.
Mr Eccles has said he did not know who decided to use private security, while Victoria Police declined to comment on whether it had received a request to produce Mr Ashton’s phone records.
It said it was a matter for the board of inquiry to comment on.
On March 27, Mr Ashton was using a police-issued phone. The board declined to comment on Sunday on whether it had requested his phone records.
Victoria Police told the inquiry a member of the Premier’s private office sent a text message to the Premier’s department at 1.19pm referring to “security” and that “Simon is getting to me ASAP” — likely a reference to Jobs Department secretary Simon Phemister.
Mr Andrews said on Sunday the government would release all the phone records of him and his staff, including text messages and messages on encrypted apps, to the inquiry, following a request from the board on Saturday.
A Department of Premier and Cabinet spokesman on Sunday said Mr Eccles “has received a request from the board of inquiry to submit phone records and will respond accordingly”.
With hearings finished and the inquiry due to report by November 6, it appears highly unlikely Mr Andrews or ministers will be asked to reappear before the inquiry.
It is also unlikely the phone records will be separately released although relevant parts are expected to be referenced in the final report.
The inquiry request came as Mr Andrews said while there would be “significant” easing in restrictions next Sunday, the number of ongoing cases meant the relaxing of rules would not be as much as hoped.
Victoria recorded 12 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, and one death, leaving Melbourne’s current rolling fortnight average at 9.3. Under the government’s road map, restrictions would be eased only if there were fewer than an average five new cases each day over a fortnight.
Mr Andrews did signal there would be some easing focused on social restrictions rather than businesses.
Extending the state of emergency and state of disaster for a further four weeks, he also said close contacts of confirmed cases would be required to be tested for coronavirus on day 11 of their quarantine or face a further 10 days of quarantine.
Regional Victorian business would be required to ask for drivers licences to ascertain whether a customer seeking table service was from Melbourne.
Mr Andrews also sought assurances from the federal government that private aged-care facilities would be safe before the state could fully reopen.
He said he was not 100 per cent confident in the sector being able to operate safely. “We are ready. Whether a sector that I don‘t regulate, I don’t fund, I don’t run, whether that sector is ready, then the only person who can answer that is the federal Aged Care Minister,” Mr Andrews said.
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