Vic opposition demands answers on hotel quarantine private security

The Victorian opposition has written to the state’s Auditor General on why Unified Security was awarded contracts for the state’s hotel quarantine scheme despite being linked to a string of failed businesses.

Victoria’s hotel quarantine program has been plagued by problems. Picture: Getty Images

Victoria’s opposition has called for the state’s Auditor-General to investigate why contracts to operate the state’s hotel quarantine scheme were given to security operators, including one that was linked to a $4.5m collapse.

The letter from the opposition’s police spokesman, David Southwick, calls for an investigation into how Unified Security was able to land the massive contracts for the state’s first hotel quarantine scheme despite “a company closely linked to Unified Security, operating under an almost identical name and from the same Sydney address” collapsing into liqui­dation owing $4.5m.

“Despite paying more than $60m to these companies, private security contractors were directly responsible for triggering Victoria’s catastrophic second wave, resulting in the deaths of more than 800 Victorians, 250,000 job losses and immeasurable social and economic harms,” Mr Southwick says in his letter.

“Of particular concern remains the decision to engage Unified Security in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program. Furthermore, unlike the other two private security companies engaged in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, Unified Security was not part of a Victorian government panel of approved security providers.”

Mr Southwick said the decision to award Unified Security the contract to the state’s quarantine ­hotels was all the more serious, given the Victorian government review into the state’s private security industry, which was due for release in December 2020.

“The decision to award this contract occurred more than a year after the announcement of a government review into Victoria’s private security industry into ongoing concerns of widespread company phoenixing, sham contracting and poor training and employee education and language standards,” Mr Southwick said.

“The Victorian opposition remains deeply concerned about the process surrounding the decision to engage Unified Security in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program and its suitability to hold a Victorian private security licence.”

Mr Southwick calls on the government to review the granting of a licence to operate to Unified Security after the business was stripped of its rights to operate in NSW.

“As a consequence of this and other probity issues, the NSW Police Security Licensing Enforcement Directorate recently revoked Unified Security’s NSW private security licence — in complete contrast to the Victorian authorities’ decision to extending its licence for three years in February 2021,” he said.

The letter comes weeks after Unified Security was stripped of its licence to operate in NSW.

The NSW Police Security Licensing Enforcement Directorate cancelled Unified Security’s master licence after finding the business “engaged in purposely misleading … conduct”.

Unified Security has appealed the attempt to strip the business of its licence and was granted a one-month interim stay by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.