Coronavirus Australia: Sorry, but I don’t know either, says Daniel Andrews

Daniel Andrews lays blame for decision to employ private security guards at quarantine hotels at feet of ministers, public servants.

Daniel Andrews has admitted he does not know who made the ­decision to employ private security guards at quarantine hotels, laying blame at the feet of key ministers and public servants as he apologised to Victorians for the disastrous program.

As the final witness to appear before the hotel quarantine inquiry, the Victorian Premier joined Labor ministers, bureaucrats and emergency services chiefs in pleading ignorance about who decided to deploy guards, conceding there might not have been a decision but just a “creeping assumption” by government figures that guards would be used.

Mr Andrews said Health Minister Jenny Mikakos was accountable to him and parliament for the hotel quarantine program ­between April and July, a period where outbreaks from hotels triggered the state’s devastating coronavirus second wave.

His evidence puts a cloud over the ministerial future of Ms ­Mikakos given her evidence to the inquiry that she did not become aware of security guards at the ­hotels until late May.

Mr Andrews told the inquiry he was concerned by Ms Mikakos and the state’s top health bureaucrat, Kym Peake, not seeing themselves as accountable for the quarantine program.

He said Jobs Minister Martin Pakula’s department had created a high risk of the program failing by placing responsibility for infection control with private companies.

Mr Andrews also indicated that Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp and former police chief Graham Ashton should carry some responsibility, as enforcement decisions at hotels were an operational matter akin to fighting bushfires.

“The decision to engage private security contractors, and many decisions like it, were of an operational nature. That is similarly so in the management of other disasters,” he said. “For example, I have no role in determining the mix of staff and allocation of tasks during a catastrophic bushfire event.”

On Australian Defence Force support, Mr Andrews said his own chief public servant, Chris Eccles, should have told him the commonwealth had offered troops to assist with the hotel quarantine program in April.

Acknowledging unacceptable mistakes had been made by his government, Mr Andrews issued an apology and committed to take action when he received the report of inquiry chair Jennifer Coate.

 

“Those mistakes are unacceptable to me,” he said. “I want to make it very clear to each and every member of the Victorian community that I am sorry for what has occurred here and I want to issue an unreserved apology to all Victorians. “I want to say to you, Madame Chair, I await your final report, the conclusion of your work, so we can understand better what has occurred.

“So I, as leader of government, can take appropriate action to ensure these sorts of errors never occur again.”

Poor infection control among private security guards working at hotel quarantine is believed to have sparked Victoria’s corona­virus second wave, which has claimed the lives of more than 750 people. In his statement given to the inquiry, Mr Andrews said he understood Ms Mikakos and, initially, Mr Pakula were responsible for the program.

“At the start of the program, I regarded Minister Mikakos and Minister Pakula as responsible for informing cabinet about, and seeking cabinet’s endorsement of, the initial overall service model and costings that had been determined,” he said.

“They did so at the CCC meeting on 8 April 2020 … I then regarded Minister Mikakos as accountable for the program.”

When counsel assisting the inquiry Rachel Ellyard asked Mr Andrews if it was concerning that Ms Mikakos and Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kym Peake did not share his perception of their accountability, he said: “Yes.”

When Ms Ellyard asked Mr Andrews if there should be no confusion over who was running a program as important as hotel quarantine, he said: “No, there is no room for that.”

Mr Andrews further admitted the program had failed, allowing the disease to spread through the state instead of acting as a buffer.

GRAPHIC: 25 days of hearings

“It was supposed to contain the virus (and) it didn’t,” he said. “Therefore something has gone wrong and I’m basically waiting for this inquiry to provide me with some insight into that.”

Mr Andrews emphatically rejected that shared accountability and collective decision-making meant no one could be identified as responsible, derailing the explanation given by Ms Mikakos and the state’s top bureaucrats.

“I don’t think collective decision-making makes it harder to determine what body and which people made a judgment, made a decision,” he said. “That’s why those forums have a record of decisions and minutes and a degree — they are an authorising environment.”

When Ms Ellyard asked Mr Andrews if it was alarming that it seemed no one understood they were part of the collective decision-making, he said: “Yes, it is very disappointing.”

Mr Andrews said the possibility private security came to be used through “a creeping assumption” instead of a conscious decision was perhaps of even greater concern to him. His comments contrast the defence proffered by Ms Mikakos, Ms Peake and Mr Eccles, who all pointed to a model of collective governance.

GRAPHIC: 1 unanswered question

The inquiry heard the contracts entered into by the state of Victoria placed the responsibility for infection control, including staff training and ensuring an adequate supply of personal protective equipment, with private companies.

When Ms Ellyard asked if relying on private companies to ensure infection control created a high risk of the program failing, he said: “Yes.”

The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions entered into contracts on behalf of the state but the relevant minister, Mr Pakula, told the inquiry he was not briefed until after the fact.

On Friday, Mr Andrews was shown an email exchange between Mr Eccles and his commonwealth counterpart, Phil Gaetjens, in which ADF support was offered to assist Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.

The Premier said he was unaware of the offer, believing the ADF to be unavailable following discussions at the national cabinet meeting on March 27 prior to hotel quarantine being announced by Scott Morrison.

Mr Andrews told the inquiry he learnt Mr Crisp had requested 850 troops from the ADF when his office alerted him to media reports on June 25, admitting he “had a view about it”.