Coronavirus: No sack for Ruby Princess panel ‘failures’

The four members of a NSW Health expert panel found to have committed ‘serious” and “inexcusable’ failures in their ­assessment of the Ruby Princess will keep their jobs.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Getty Images

The four members of a NSW Health expert panel found to have committed “serious” and “inexcusable” failures in their ­assessment of the Ruby Princess cruise ship will keep their jobs without incurring any disciplinary action, despite the outcomes of an inquiry laying the blame for the public health emergency with their decision-making.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian vowed on Monday to implement the shortlist of recom­mendations handed down by a special commission of inquiry into the cruise ship disaster, saying these would be enacted as a priority by a designated official.

She also apologised unreservedly for the catastrophic events.

The Australian has learned that no changes will be made to the expert panel process and no disciplinary action will be taken against the four physicians who were ultimately blamed for the “serious failures” resulting in the ship being designated a “low risk” for COVID-19.

The cluster on board the Ruby Princess resulted in 28 deaths and more than 1000 infections nationwide, according to the inquiry’s findings.

An NSW government official said taking disciplinary action against the physicians had not been a recommendation made by Bret Walker SC, the inquiry’s commissioner, and doing so would be difficult given the physicians remained integral to the state’s pandemic response.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard did not respond to questions relating to the expert panel and neither did NSW Health.

His apology on Monday to the victims of the fiasco was met with a mixed response by ­Coalition MPs, some of whom labelled Mr Hazzard’s apology as “underwhelming” and “lacking empathy”.

Unlike Ms Berejiklian, who acknowledged that mistakes were made, Mr Hazzard told gathered journalists that he was sorry “lives have been impacted by decisions in this once-in-a-100-year pandemic”.

Labor’s health spokesman, Ryan Park, said Mr Hazzard needed to provide a more fulsome apology to the victims, their families and others affected by the events.

He said this could be achieved with a ministerial statement to the NSW parliament at its next sitting.

“This has been our worst public health disaster in modern times and I don’t feel his apology showed the empathy or detail that it needed,” Mr Park said.

“We need to see a minister who understands the gravity of what has occurred and can give assurances to the families and those people infected that these mistakes won’t happen again — and the best way he can do that is to address the parliament.”

Elsewhere on Tuesday a Senate inquiry in Canberra scrutinising the government’s response to COVID-19, heard that officers with the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment had failed to check the health of the ship’s passengers before they were allowed to disembark.