Coronavirus: Victorian emergency chief Andrew Crisp called to explain changes to testimony

A member of a powerful Victorian parliamentary committee says emergency commissioner Andrew Crisp should return to explain why he corrected testimony on the hotel quarantine fiasco.

Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp.

An independent member of a powerful Victorian parliamentary committee says emergency commissioner Andrew Crisp should return to explain why he corrected testimony on the hotel quarantine fiasco.

Liberal Democrat MP David Limbrick, a public accounts and ­estimates committee member, said the corrections raised questions that the committee had the right to ask.

“I support him coming back in the interest of transparency,” he said. “I think there’s questions to be answered, the committee should have the opportunity to do it.”

Pressure is mounting on Mr Crisp after the committee released a letter from the Emergency Management Victoria Commissioner on Tuesday in which he retracted three references to regularly briefing Police Minister Lisa Neville on the program.

A Liberal bid to recall the top public health official as witness is due to take place before the committee on Monday.

The Labor dominated committee is the only parliamentary body with the authority to call government ministers and the bureaucracy to account, but is made up of five Labor MPs, three Coalition MPs and two independents.

If the motion to recall Mr Crisp is supported by all three Coalition MPs, as well as Mr Limbrick and Greens member Sam Hibbins, it is likely chairwoman and Labor member Lizzie Blandthorn will use her casting vote to prevent Mr Crisp being recalled.

Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the public deserved answers on why Mr Crisp decided to correct his evidence to the committee weeks after he appeared as witness.

“If Labor MPs vote to protect Andrew Crisp from being recalled to give evidence, it is just a cover-up,” he said. “A cover-up to avoid getting to the truth and it just demonstrates why Victorians can have no confidence in this government or their senior public servants.”

On August 26, Mr Crisp ­appeared via Zoom with Ms ­Neville to answer questions on the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite appearing before the committee at the same time, Ms Neville did not correct Mr Crisp when he said three times he was regularly briefing her on the establishment of hotel quarantine over March 27 and 28.

As well, questions taken on ­notice by the commissioner are now more than a month overdue, with the committee still waiting to receive a copy of the hotel quarantine operational plan as well as ­recordings from planning meetings on March 27 and 28.

Premier Daniel ­Andrews said whether Mr Crisp was recalled was a matter for the committee.

“It’s not a government committee, it’s got members of parliament who take their responsibilities very seriously,” he said.

Mr Crisp did not return The Australian’s requests for comment, but on Wednesday said he alone had decided to correct his testimony.

It comes as Victoria recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19, with six linked to known outbreaks.

With Melbourne scheduled to take the next step out of lockdown in less than two-weeks, Deputy Chief Health Officer Allan Cheng said he was concerned by six mystery cases recorded between September 30 and Tuesday.

“Every unknown source case represents at least one person who gave it to them,” he said. “So that’s the figure I think that concerns me the most at this stage.”

Under the current plan, Melbourne must record fewer than five cases with an unknown source over a 14-day-period, as well as a rolling daily average of less than five cases over two weeks.

Mr Andrews said any easing of restrictions on October 19 would be based on data.