Victoria’s hotel quarantine legal bill soars to $12.3 million

Victorian government departments spent at least $12.3 million on legal representation during the hotel quarantine inquiry – more than double the cost of the probe itself.

International travellers arrive at the Intercontinental Hotel in Melbourne to complete two weeks of quarantine. Picture: Paul Jeffers

The Victorian government spent at least $12.3m on legal representation during the hotel quarantine inquiry — more than double the cost of the probe itself.

The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) spent $3.7m on lawyers from Corrs Chambers Westgarth, bringing the total cost of the inquiry to $18m.

A department spokeswoman said “all reasonable costs” incurred by the external legal team would be covered by the department’s insurer.

The $3.7m is in addition to the $6.25m spent by the Department of Health and Human Services, $1.01m by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, the $899,300 by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the $446,000 by Treasury and Finance.

The inquiry headed by former judge Jennifer Coate was given a budget $5.7m.

During the inquiry, counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard noted it was “not usually the case that multiple government departments who have had a role in a matter under investigation are separately represented in the way that multiple departments have been separately represented in this proceedings”.

“Assume from me that it’s somewhat unusual,” she said in September.

DJPR was responsible for contracting private security companies but was the support agency to the Department of Health and Human Services, which bore ultimate responsibility for running hotel quarantine.

Poor infection control among guards is believed to have sparked the second wave that claimed the lives of 801 people and sentenced Melbourne to months in lockdown.

The inquiry did not establish who made the decision to use ­private security companies at quarantine hotels, which is considered a pivotal failing that ­allowed the virus to seed into the community.

The opposition spokesman for police and crime prevention, David Southwick, said the Coate inquiry had been set up to fail.

The government last week unveiled plans for a new quarantine centre in the far-north Melbourne suburb of Mickleham, for which it needs federal funding.