Coronavirus: Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton’s explosive email kept secret from inquiry
Brett Sutton instructed lawyers to withhold an email that appears to contradict his sworn evidence he wasn’t told about private guards.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton instructed lawyers to withhold from the state’s hotel quarantine inquiry a critical email that appears to contradict his sworn evidence that he was not told about the use of private security guards until months after the scheme began.
Professor Sutton’s bid to keep the email secret was revealed after the inquiry headed by former judge Jennifer Coate held a special hearing on Tuesday and released its correspondence with lawyers acting for the Department of Health and Human Services.
The inquiry is considering who engaged private security guards for the hotel quarantine program in late March instead of using police and Australian Defence Force officers, a decision now seen as a catalyst for allowing the coronavirus to escape and spread across Melbourne.
It has asked for Professor Sutton and other bureaucrats involved in the scheme to clarify their earlier evidence. The Herald Sun reported that Premier Daniel Andrews was among “certain parties” ordered by the inquiry to make another sworn statement.
In a letter sent to the inquiry on Monday, DHHS lawyers said an employee raised concerns some relevant emails had not been given to the investigation on September 28. Those emails, sent on March 27, show Professor Sutton in an exchange with commonwealth officials during which the use of private security is discussed.
Despite this, Professor Sutton told the lawyers he stood by his previous evidence that he was not aware of the use of private security until media reports in May. The department’s lawyers said Professor Sutton had instructed them that he did not need to clarify his evidence because he did not read the details of the emails and so they did not need to be provided.
“Professor Sutton further instructed us that he did not consider he needed to clarify his evidence and therefore the email did not need to be provided to the Board for that reason,” the email from the DHHS to the inquiry said.
The DHHS was still considering whether “anything further needed to be done” when the inquiry requested those emails be produced last Thursday.
The March 27 email chain now tabled to the inquiry shows a Department of Home Affairs official, Sandra Jeffery, asking Professor Sutton to provide details of quarantine arrangements in Victoria, including security arrangements.
Professor Sutton asked DHHS deputy director strategy and policy, Braedan Hogan, to respond and copy him in. Mr Hogan told Ms Jeffery that “private security is being contracted to provide security at the hotels with escalation arrangements to (Victoria Police) as needed”.
Professor Sutton acknowledged receipt of the email with the words: “thanks so much, Braedan”.
He had previously given evidence to the inquiry that he was unaware of the use of private security at hotels until he saw media reports about the outbreak at the Rydges Hotel in May.
The inquiry has heard that almost all of Victoria’s second COVID-19 wave could be linked to quarantined travellers at the Rydges and Stamford Plaza.
Tony Neal QC, counsel assisting the inquiry, said Professor Sutton would be asked to provide an affidavit responding to questions about the emails.
Answers would also be sought from Professor Sutton and DHHS secretary Kym Peake about a six-page email chain between DHHS officials, including an April 1 email by a senior bureaucrat headed: “Information — Chain of Command – people in detention”.
Finn Romanes, the deputy public health commander in charge of planning at the time, wrote that “all policy and oversight of people in detention is being handled in a strict chain of command” headed by Professor Sutton. “It is important that all direction, policy, reporting and arrangements do not break this chain,” he wrote.
On March 27, the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions was told it would be the lead agency for the quarantine program. This led to a frantic night of work by departmental staff sourcing security and the signing of contracts with private security. As early as the next day, DHHS assumed the lead role, but Ms Peake subsequently maintained that the quarantine program was a joint operation with shared accountability between the two departments.
Jobs Minister Martin Pakula insisted DHHS became the lead agency, and Mr Andrews said then health minister Jenny Mikakos was accountable for the program. She and Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles have both resigned.
Mr Neal said the email might add “some weight” to deliberations as to who was in charge of the scheme.
Mr Eccles will be asked to provide a further affidavit to the inquiry after phone records showed he spoke to the then Victoria Police chief Graham Ashton for 135 seconds in a pivotal six-minute window during the planning of hotel quarantine. Mr Ashton will also be asked to answer new questions put by the inquiry.
Ms Coate said that, “most unfortunately”, the new development might unsettle the due date for the inquiry’s report. However, she said she was unable to be clear about whether the timetable would change as she did not yet have the material.
The inquiry could recall witnesses, although Mr Neal said it “must be emphasised that the relevant parties are being asked to address novel material not the subject of previous evidence”.
“There is no basis for inferring or speculating that any view has yet been formed about the veracity or otherwise of evidence previously given by any parties on the topic of engagement of private security,” he said.
Melbourne is poised to have public health restrictions wound back next week, allowing retail and hospitality venues to reopen and residents to welcome visitors to their homes for the first time in months, as coronavirus case numbers continue to fall.
Mr Andrews said on Tuesday he hoped to be able to bring forward to Sunday plans for further easing of restrictions that had been slated to come into effect from November 2. However, there was no chance they would be lifted in time for this Saturday’s AFL grand final featuring two Victorian teams: Richmond and Geelong. The Premier warned that police would have a heightened presence to ¬ensure people weren’t gathering in breach of current restrictions. “We’ve been very clear that we want to look at numbers as they unfold this week,” Mr Andrews said.
There was one new COVID-19 infection reported on Tuesday, with the possibility that the real figure was zero given the case was linked to a prior infection.
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