Coronavirus: Police, ADF to enforce strict new quarantine

Police and ADF personnel will play key roles and private security guards will not be involved in the Victorian government’s strict new hotel quarantine program.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in Melbourne on Monday. Picture: Paul Jeffers

Police and ADF personnel will play key roles, private security guards will not be involved, lines of accountability will be clear, and staff will be prohibited from taking on second jobs or living with people working in vulnerable environments such as aged care.

These are among strict conditions of the Andrews government’s reset hotel quarantine program, which reopens on Monday after coronavirus clusters sparked Victoria’s deadly second wave and prompted the system’s closure five months ago.

The new scheme, to be overseen by Police Minister Lisa Neville and a new, dedicated agency, COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria, was announced alongside a revamp that will see Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services split from February 1. A new Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to be run by Housing Minister Richard Wynne will take in child protection, disability, housing and family safety.

Ms Neville will be the third minister in five months to carry responsibility for hotel quarantine, with former health minister Jenny Mikakos and DHHS initially the lead agency and responsibility later handed to Attorney-General Jill Hennessy and the Department of Justice and Community Safety amid the second wave.

No politician or public servant has taken responsibility for the decision to use private security guards, whose infection control breaches ultimately caused almost 20,000 infections. The second wave death toll on Monday reached 801, after a woman in her 70s died from complications after being infected in July.

Corrections Commissioner Emma Cassar will serve as the interim commissioner of CQV, reporting directly to Ms Neville, with all staff in the program to be employed or directly contracted by CQV, except cleaning staff, who will be on secure, fixed-term contracts with Alfred Health and banned from working elsewhere.

Victoria Police will have an expanded role, carrying out supervision, enforcement and compliance duties with the support of ADF personnel. From Monday, up to 160 people per day will begin arriving back in Melbourne, to be charged $3500 per adult to spend the compulsory fortnight in hotel quarantine.