Victorian hotel quarantine boss Matiu Bush resigns

Victorian quarantine hotel boss Matiu Bush is under investigation for infection control breaches and the hiring of two fitness trainers.

In a Facebook video posted on May 29, 2020 and still available on Facebook, Matiu Bush promotes Alex Cheong's West Melbourne gym, Functional-U.

Suspended Victorian quarantine hotel boss Matiu Bush has ­resigned while under investigation for infection control breaches and the hiring of two fitness trainers from a gym he promoted to $100,000-a-year jobs in the troubled program.

Mr Bush agreed to quit in the wake of Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria deciding his hiring of the gym trainers, revealed by The Australian in late May, should be part of “wide-ranging” investigation into his conduct. Mr Bush was directly involved in the hiring of Functional U gym owner Alex Cheong and one of its trainers, Christine Yap, as hotel site leads and he featured prominently in a Facebook video promoting the gym.

The broadened inquiry was ­examining Mr Bush’s “recruitment processes”, including ­whether he declared any potential conflict of interest in relation to his links to the gym and, in particular, Mr Cheong.

Mr Cheong, who was stood down in response to The Australian’s report, resigned and ended his employment with CQV on June 4 before a separate investigation into his alleged unauthorised secondary employment was concluded.Hotel quarantine employees are not authorised to undertake secondary employment without written approval.

Ms Yap was also stood down but was found not to be working at the gym or engaging in any other unauthorised secondary employment and has returned to work.

Mr Bush had been stood down in early May after The Australian revealed he had been ­reported to authorities twice after refusing a Defence Force request for a mandatory Covid-19 test and breaching ­infection-control protocols. His decision to resign as CQV’s infection prevention and control general manager follows the resignation of IPC director ­Giulietta Pontivivo in May. Mr Bush finished his employment with CQV on Friday and the investigation has been concluded.

Ms Pontivivo went on leave after The Australian revealed she and Mr Bush had been counselled over an IPC breach at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne on March 1.

In a statement on Friday, a CQV spokeswoman said: “We have high expectations of all our staff, and quarantine program workers are trained and encouraged to report any IPC breaches, however small, so they can be immediately investigated and acted on. CQV employees are not ­allowed to undertake secondary employment without written ­approval. Approval is not given to frontline staff for any work that ­requires face-to-face contact.

“Any employee found to be breaching these policies will face disciplinary action, including ­potential termination of their ­employment.”

Mr Cheong and Ms Yap were appointed to the $101,000-a-year positions this year. Sources said Mr Bush was on the interviewing panel.

In a Facebook video posted by Functional U in May 2020, Mr Bush promoted Mr Cheong‘s West Melbourne gym, praising the Zoom classes that were being run by the business in the first months of the pandemic.

Interviewed outside a nearby cafe, Mr Bush is described as the “man with swagger” who inspired the gym to do Zoom sessions because of the amount of training he was doing. Asked “how did you get that beautiful in such a short amount of time” after the session, Mr Bush replies: “Lots of practice.” He praised the “ethic vibe” of the music used during the session.

Mr Cheong and Ms Yap were featured on the Functional U website as working at the gym but their names and profiles were removed after The Australian put questions to the government about their employment as hotel site leads.

The incidents involving Mr Bush and Ms Pontivivo were disclosed in dozens of daily confidential ­reports that documented an array of breaches and incidents.

The state government had initially maintained counselling Mr Bush was an adequate response to his conduct but took tougher ­action when The Australian disclosed his behaviour as part of a special investigation into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.