Melbourne hotel coronavirus inquiry: more to come

The hotel quarantine inquiry is expected to release an additional statement from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, the state’s top public health official and two chief public servants who resigned­.

Hotel quarantine inquiry chairwoman Jennifer Coate.

The hotel quarantine inquiry is expected to release an additional statement from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, the state’s top public health official and two chief public servants who resigned­ after giving testimony.

Chairwoman Jennifer Coate will hold a final hearing on Friday to hear submissions from counsel assisting Tony Neal QC. Further evidence, including affidavits, will be tendered.

It is understood no witnesses will be recalled at the hearing, which comes after the inquiry requeste­d additional statements and phone records from a number­ of witnesses at an extraordinary sitting on October 20.

As well as Mr Andrews, the inquiry requested further statements from Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, Police Minister Lisa Neville, former Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles and former Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kym Peake.

At the extraordinary sitting, the Coate inquiry asked Professor Sutton to explain why emails in which he was CCed appeared­ to contradict what he told the inquiry about when he learned private security would be used.

Minter Ellison lawyers acting for Professor Sutton said he had requested that the emails not be tendered to the inquiry as they did not change his testimony, something the inquiry rejected.

Mr Eccles resigned on October 12 after his phone records revealed he had called then Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton during a pivotal six-minute window on March 27 when the hotel quarantine program was being set up.

In their submission, Victoria Police said someone in that timeframe had called Mr Ashton to tell him a decision to use priv­ate security had been made.

Whoever made the decision believed responsible for sparking the state’s coronavirus second wave, which killed 800 people, remains a mystery after the $10m inquiry into the debacle was told by politicians and public servants that they did not know and could not recall.

Ms Peake stepped down on November 12 and has since been replaced by former Safer Care chief executive Euan Wallace.

She followed her former minister Jenny Mikakos, who resigned­ on September 26, the day after Mr Andrews told the inquiry he believed she and the DHHS were responsible for running hotel quarantine.

Ms Neville has confirmed the inquiry requested she make an additional statement, while Mr Andrews and members of his staff were asked to hand over their phone records.

The news comes as Victoria prepares to restart a quarantine program, with international trav­ellers to spend their mandatory 14-day isolation period in the state for the first time since the end of July.

The state government has yet to respond to recommendations made by the inquiry in an interim­ report released almost three-weeks ago.

On Wednesday, Mr Andrews said no quarantine model could be free from risk. “There is no zero-risk framework here,” he said. Despite Victoria recording 26 consecutive days of no new cases and having its second day of no active cases, the Premier said there was “every chance” the virus was still out there.