Coronavirus: Tapes could be key to clues on quarantine

Recordings may reveal confidential discussions on hotel quarantine scandal.

Recordings of key discussions on planning for the failed hotel quarantine system are expected to have been made by Victorian emergency services chiefs.

It is not known exactly what was recorded but the tapes could provide crucial information for the board of inquiry into the hotel quarantine disaster.

There has been intense debate about who knew what — and when — about Victoria’s failure to seek or accept Australian Defence Force help during the state’s first wave of COVID-19.

Senior Victorian government figures have known for weeks that the State Control Centre discussions are routinely recorded.

Recordings are made in the control centre under protocols that enable maximum accountability during disasters such as bushfires and now the coronavirus pandemic.

The Australian understands that the recording policy was in place in late March as Emergency Management Victoria was grappling with how to deal with ­returning overseas travellers.

EMV was dealing with the ADF from March 21, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison declaring six days later that the ADF would support the states on compulsory hotel quarantine.

The Australian reported on Thursday that EMV and senior ADF liaison officers and members of the ADF planning team were involved in planning but no army personnel were used by Victoria during the first wave.

This is seen to have been a crucial mistake because the use of security guards by the Andrews government contributed greatly to the second wave in Victoria.

An EMV spokeswoman on Thursday refused to say what ­occurred at the control centre.

“It’s not appropriate to disclose the State Control Centre’s operational practices,” she said.

The Australian reported on Thursday that at least 100 defence force personnel were ready to ­enforce the quarantine arrangements but were not used.

It was reported that the ADF repeatedly conveyed that authorities in the state would not be using defence staff in the same way as Queensland and NSW.

These records bring into question the version of events offered by Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews.

EMV commissioner Andrew Crisp claims he didn’t seek and was not offered ADF assistance while conducting the hotel quarantine planning on the crucial dates of March 27-28, The Australian ­reported. Victorian opposition legal affairs spokesman Edward O’Donohue said any recordings that may have been taken of deliberations should be released to the public.

The recording policy is widely known in government circles and flowed from the Black Saturday royal commission, which heard that key documentation relating to the fire effort had gone missing and could not be found.

This spurred a massive overhaul of accountability measures to ensure that things like bushfire maps were not lost. Or, if they were, that there would be ­evidence of them.

There has been wide debate about why Victorian Labor opted against using the ADF to help with the quarantine measures. Genomic testing shows that much, or all, of the second wave of the virus stems from Victoria’s failed hotel quarantine arrangements.

That testing is expected to be revealed during the course of the board of inquiry into the quarantine arrangements.

Mr Andrews has also raised the spectre of releasing the data, which is central to the debate about the impact of the Victorian hotel quarantine system.

Until the hotel quarantine system scandal, the Victorian government was widely seen to have done a solid job tackling the virus.