Victorian government loses bid to keep coronavirus briefings secret

Covid briefing documents used to justify sending Victorians into the world’s longest lockdown will finally be made public, after the state government lost its bid to keep them secret.

The Victorian government has lost its bid to keep secret the coronavirus briefings used to justify sending Victorians into the world’s longest lockdown.

The Court of Appeal on Thursday refused the Department of Health’s application for leave to appeal a landmark Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling in June last year to hand over the documents to Liberal MP David Davis.

Mr Davis had been fighting for the release of the documents, including emails behind lockdown decisions between then-Public Health Commander Finn Romanes, and the chief health officer Brett Sutton, since first lodging a Freedom of Information request in September 2020.

Mr Davis told the Herald Sun the long-awaited judgment by appeal court judges, Chief Justice Richard Niall and justices Karin Emerton and Stephen Kaye, would finally put a spotlight on Labor’s Covid “cover-up”.

“This has exposed Labor’s shameful cover up of critical information, using every trick in the book to block and frustrate FOI requests,” he said.

“Labor is far from a model litigant.

“In fact, this is the most secretive government in Victorian history.

“The release of these documents has been blocked for five years by the Andrews and Allan Labor governments.

“What have they got to hide?”

Mr Davis has questioned what the government has to hide. Picture: David Crosling

His initial FOI request was denied on the basis “the work involved in processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations”.

When he pressed on with his request, the state took the matter to VCAT in a bid to stop the information going public.

Government officials told the tribunal the documents should not be released as they were not of public interest, and would inhibit frankness and candour in written communications by senior public officers in the future.

VCAT member Caitlin English found there was no evidence any frontline services would be impacted by pulling together the documentation, believed to be up to 7000 pages long.

The documents include emails between then-Public Health Commander Finn Romanes, and the chief health officer Brett Sutton, pictured. Picture: David Crosling

She also ruled the information should be released as it was of “high public interest”.

The state appealed Judge English’s ruling on seven grounds, including that they were denied procedural fairness, and she erred in finding some documents were not exempt from release.

But justices Niall, Emerton and Kaye threw out the appeal, finding Judge English had not made any errors of law, and her reasoning for releasing the documents “did not involve or contain any demarcation”.

“We have concluded that each of the seven proposed grounds of appeal do not succeed,” their judgment read. “Accordingly, the application for leave to appeal is refused.”

It is unclear if the government will take their appeal fight to a higher court, and if not, how long it will take them to prepare the documents for release.

A Victorian Government spokesperson said the Department of Health would “take the appropriate time to consider the court’s judgment”.

Originally published as Victorian government loses bid to keep coronavirus briefings secret