Hotel Quarantine Inquiry finds no one was responsible for decision to engage private security
Monday, 21 December 2020
It just happened.
Chapter 5 notes that the decision to engage private security was not a decision made at the Ministerial level.
The Premier and former Minister Mikakos said they played no part in the decision.
Minister Neville was aware of the proposal but not responsible for it and Minister Pakula appears not to have been told until after private security had been engaged. Enforcement of quarantine was a crucial element of the Program that the Premier had committed Victoria to adopting, but neither he nor his Ministers had any active role in, or oversight of, the decision about how that enforcement would be achieved.
In his evidence, the Premier agreed that the question of how this occurred should be capable of being answered.24
As the head of the Victorian Public Service at the time, the then Secretary of DPC acknowledged it was a fair point that, if no one knew who made the decision, there was an obvious risk that no one would understand that they had the responsibility for revisiting the decision if time and experience showed that it was not the correct one.25 This was what occurred here.
The decision was made without proper analysis or even a clear articulation that it was being made at all. On its face, this was at odds with any normal application of the principles of the Westminster system of responsible government. That a decision of such significance for a government program, which ultimately involved the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars and the employment of thousands of people, had neither a responsible Minister nor a transparent rationale for why that course was adopted, plainly does not seem to accord with those principles.
The conclusions contained in Chapter 5 find that the decision as to the enforcement model for people detained in quarantine was a substantial part of an important public health initiative and it cost the Victorian community many millions of dollars. But it remained, as multiple submissions to the Inquiry noted, an orphan, with no person or department claiming responsibility.
Utter crap
Posted by: Royal Rea | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:26 AM
$10 + million dollar whitewash.
Why did people resign if no one was responsible?
Posted by: Philip | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:29 AM
No Blame ....Well That Clears Everyone......It Was An Act Of GOD ......đđ€Łđ
Posted by: Wayne Shaft | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:31 AM
what BS, the outcome was predictable as it will prevent Chairman Dan and his cronies being held accountable. A complete waste of time and a disgrace to the memory of the over 800 people who lost their lives due to his governments' incompetence. The man should be in jail...
Posted by: cobba | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:34 AM
As Gomer Pyle would say SURRPRIIISE!! SURRPRIISE!!
Posted by: Baysidegal | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:38 AM
A Royal Commission required now thanks!!
Posted by: Julie of Geelong | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:40 AM
As I thought.
Labor(sic) conspicuously lacks the competence to run a piss-up in a brewery; a punch-up in a pub or a f*ck-up in a brothel - so the run Mogadishu-By-The-Yarra instead.
Posted by: Up The Workers! | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:42 AM
No surprises here including the fact that the Victorian Labor government has always been chaotic with no oversight from Ministers with Public servants and Police all just doing their own thing willy nilly. Andrews has admitted that the question of the individual/s responsible for employing private security should be able to be answered. Therefore Premier as the Head honcho who should have been overseeing it all, but wasn't , resign.
Manna from heaven for Andrews today, as ALL the MSM are obsessed with the NSW so called outbreaks. This Victorian Coates enquiry will hardly see the light of day, as we all expected.
Posted by: Ceres | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:43 AM
Guess the night elves at the bottom of the garden did it! What a contemptible, rotten to the core s**tshow.
Posted by: Rod | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:45 AM
There is no way a public servant - even a very senior one - would sign off on such a big contract ($30 million) without ministerial approval.
The security firm had links with Labor.
In any case, such a control freak as Andrews would not let it happen without his approval.
Posted by: Not on the Left | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:46 AM
Unfortunately, the PM hasn't the guts to call for one.
Posted by: Not on the Left | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:47 AM
What a friggin embarrassing predictable outcome ,it seems Justice Coates is as crooked and disgraceful as old mate Dyson ,yet another Union stooge puppet ,they can walk hand in hand for the long walk of Judicial shame with their peers.
Just another expensive stage show with no-one guilty of anything, crooked public servants investigating crooked public servants , overseen by a crooked old judge , along with all their crooked matey legal teams scamming a whole lot of taxpayer cash , why do we even bother giving media time to this sad laughable rubbish.
Posted by: Political speedbump | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:51 AM
Hands up those who are surprised by this? No me neither, a total whitewash as expected. 800 deaths and nobody is responsible, what sort of twisted f$c*#d up world are we living in when those who govern over us and who we elect to serve us, get away with murder (and much more) while we ordinary folk stick by all the laws and rules set by these same people because we don't want to get into trouble. The biggest crooks are those at the top.
Posted by: Harold | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:54 AM
More money wasted for the same outcome.
Posted by: Brad | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:56 AM
Children.
The equivalent of a child standing next to a broken ornament, and pointing to a favourite toy and saying âDolly did itâ.
By the way, a friend of mine who works . . . well, never mind where . . . has told me that the private security firm is still being paid under the terms of the contract that âDollyâ signed . . . despite the fact they proved less than useless, and are not working.
Posted by: Truth-in-Footnotes | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:56 AM
"An outcome for the ages" - Sir Humphrey Appleby
Posted by: Manning | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 11:58 AM
Aptly said UTW !
Posted by: Maree | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:02 PM
Victoria doesn't have a Government they have a ALP Clown Show, and the head clown is a malevolent idiot.
The big tragedy is this clown show looks like being re-elected as there is no proper opposition, God save this country.
Posted by: Rusty of Qld | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:05 PM
As I expected...an industrial sized whitewash. These retards expect anyone with a double digit IQ to believe that " it just happened ".
This is the most disgusting miscarriage of justice I have ever seen, but Labor, and particularly the arseholes in the Victoriastan Labor Party, are past masters at it.
God help this Country, because the corruption goes all the way to the top.
Posted by: Glenn | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:21 PM
Well who paid the bastards ?
Posted by: Hotrocks | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:22 PM
How can government sign a $30 million contract if no one has made the decision?
Posted by: Gerard | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:27 PM
"Hotel Quarantine Inquiry finds no one was responsible for decision to engage private security."
Things just happened...wow...if things just happened, why do we need anybody in government?
Anyone willing to bet that Danny boys ratings improve after this whitewash?
The stench that is Victoriastan grows by the day.
Posted by: wal1957 | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:31 PM
Gee. Imagine that? Who'd have thought that decisions taken by the Victorian Government are actually made by invisible, magical oracles.
I'm sure the media will advise us that we have all moved on, lessons were learned, mistakes were made, no point in placing blame etc etc. Not to worry though, the Vic Police will be onto those Facebook posters before they even have time to hit the delete button.
Posted by: PB | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:40 PM
Spot on, and coming from a guy who has the audacity to critise Gladys..............his contact tracing was using pen and paper.........he said he liked the old fashion way...........what a fool.........well done Victorians, you all have blood on your hands if you elected this guy!!
Posted by: louise | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:41 PM
A Christmas miracle! đŒđđ©â°
Posted by: PB | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 12:44 PM
So glad I donât reside down n Victoria . Although they way things are heading here n NSW ,I might just as well be there.
Posted by: Stan | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 01:09 PM
Good description of him 'malevolent idiot'. Apparently half the population approve of malevolent idiots. They walk amongst us those who choose to be ignorant in the age of the internet.
Posted by: Ceres | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 01:22 PM
It was never meant for the enquiry to find out. A couple of light smacks on the hand and that's it. A taxpayer funded whitewash where Andrews knew what the outcome would be. Everyone involved didn't remember and it will be the same at the next election; Victorians won't remember, that's if they ever understood, and vote labor back in.
Posted by: OUTRAGED | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 01:56 PM
Michael,
This will never go to a Royal Commission, but then look at the Lawyer X scandal, nobody has done a thing about that, what was the involvement of Vicpol?
Then there is the red shirt scandal, nothng was done abut that, they all refused to answer questions.
The whole State stinks as far as I am concerned.
Posted by: Liz of Vic | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 02:44 PM
Always thought the Rhodesia solution was a work of fiction
Posted by: Warwick Townsend | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 03:17 PM
Please explain Justice Coates why Chris Eccles, stepped out of the zoom National Cabinet meeting on 27 March, after speaking to his Premier Daniel Andrews, and made the phone call to Phemister that got the ball rolling on private security for hotel quarantine. It happened. There is evidence. Justice Coates admits that Ecles evidence is at odds with that of Phemister's -
"At odds with the evidence of Mr Eccles, by the end of that call Mr Phemister understood that he and his Department were in charge of the Program âfrom end-to-endâ..."
Why did Premier Daniel Andrews openly state at his press conference at 3pm that private security would be used? Justice Coates does not refer to Andrews' words in that press conference but to his Dept's media release. They are chalk and cheese. In his press conference, Andrews admitted that his government had been "working on this for quite some time", ie enforced hotel quarantine. He said that he would be using police and private security to enforce compliance but the police would be dealing with compliance of home quarantine/on the streets.
Here is his press conference. He refers to private security at 3.58 or thereabouts. He refers to them being used for compliance purposes.
https://www.facebook.com/9NewsMelbourne/videos/covid-19-update-friday-2703/603453157051506/
Justice Coates has been negligent in not giving Daniel Andrews' words at this press conference the heavy scrutiny they deserve. He knew and wanted private security for the purpose of making returning overseas travellers comply with being forced to stay in hotel quarantine. It is obvious that he has had discussions on this prior to this press conference and probably prior to the National Cabinet meeting.
The use of private security was included in his Department's contingency plans in a briefing paper delivered to him the previous day. Daniel Andrews said he never read the brief.
It would seem from details in Vol 1 of the Coates' report that Andrew Eccles, the Secretary to the Premier's Dept, was carrying out the instructions of Andrews as, apart from rushing out of the National Cabnet meeting to call Phemister, he then contacts Phemister at 9am on 28 March
"82. At around 9.00am on 28 March 2020, Mr Phemister received a telephone call from Mr Eccles informing him that Commissioner Crisp had responsibility for coordinating the Program and that DHHS was the control agency. From that point, Mr Phemister regarded his Departmentâs new role as that of a support agency within the emergency management framework."
Eccles is the messenger for Daniel Andrews. He makes the decisions.
https://content.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-12/0387_RC_Covid-19%20Final%20Report_Volume%202_Chapter%205_Digital.pdf
There was no Victorian Government Cabinet meeting on 27 or 28 March. A state cabinet meeting didn't take place for quite some weeks after the National Cabinet meeting. Instead, Daniel Andrews set up a Crisis Council of Cabinet on Friday 3 April 2020 with the first meeting held on Wednesday 8 April. That was more than a week after the decision had been made to use private security for hotel quarantine. During that week, orders were being issued from the Dept of Premier & Cabinet. Daniel Andrews had the final say as to what came out of that Dept. Jenny Mikakos, Minister for Health, made this point in her submission to the Inquiry. The Ministers weren't making decisions. It was Daniel Andrews.
"9. The evidence before the Board discloses that between the time of the National Cabinet meeting on 27 March 2020 and the important decisions taken to set up the Hotel Quarantine Program in Victoria and its commencement at 11:59pm on 28 March 2020, no meeting of the State Cabinet was convened. Indeed, the first meeting of the State Cabinet relevant to the Hotel Quarantine Program was a meeting of the Crisis Council of Cabinet on 8 April 2020."
....
"Some of these matters speak to a failure of ordinary principles of departmental reporting and accountability. In this case, such failures occurred in extraordinary circumstances, in which the State of Victoria was facing an unprecedented global pandemic, and where ordinary decision making
mechanisms, lines of accountability and reporting had been supplanted by the
Premierâs introduction of the Crisis Council of Cabinet (and its associated structures, like the Missions Coordination Committee),5 which replaced ordinary Cabinet Committees and processes, and reorganised key aspects of the Victorian public service (in particular, ordinary reporting structures between Secretaries and Ministers).6 To this end, the institution of the Crisis Council of Cabinet saw the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Kym Peake, reporting directly to the Premier in her capacity as Mission Lead Secretary
as well as to her Minister (which required Ms Peake to appoint an Associate Secretary tonassume some of her ordinary departmental obligations to enable her to fulfill this new role)."
https://www.quarantineinquiry.vic.gov.au/submissions
I don't know how Jennifer Coates made it to the rank of Judge if this Report is an example of her quality of work. It is a weak Report with too many gaps, with important evidence not addressed.
Posted by: seeker of truth | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 04:11 PM
That was the narrative pre investigation. It was pre determined. The inquiry was part of the clown show, the act.
Posted by: Julie | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 04:18 PM
More tom the point, there is no Minister who would sign off on such a contract without approval from the Premier. Everyone, from the most committed PHON voter to the most dyed-in-the-wool, rusted-on Labor voter, knows this for a fact, but that FACT will be ignored and Chairman Dan will sail on unscathed, almost as if he was in close formation with Julia Gillard and Bill Shorten (if that's not too cryptic for some).
Posted by: Cliff | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 04:59 PM
Slightly off-topic, but there are reports circulating that Tiffany Dover, the nurse who collapsed or "fainted" after having a coronavirus vaccine shot, is dead.
Personally, I have serious doubts, but who knows what to believe in this day and age when lying and misinforming has become an art form in the MSM and social media?
Posted by: Not on the Left | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 05:16 PM
Miracle On 34th Street ....Just Off Belten Road ....đ€§
Posted by: Wayne Shaft | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 06:15 PM
What a disgrace, but, as Worksafe Victoria, is responsible for not only investigating but prosecuting breaches of workplace health and safety, and is not beholden to anyone, shouldnât he, the Worksafe Commissioner now step in and take on board what Michael has clearly pointed out in his correspondence to IBAC. Clearly, theyâve been nobbled as well..
Posted by: Justcruising | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 06:33 PM
Great post. Peta Credlin. and others predicted exactly this. Hope she pens a response.. $6million down the gurgler, enjoy your largesse Jennifer and Counsel Assisting etc.
Posted by: Ceres | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 06:59 PM
The same leftie beuranaziâs collecting taxpayer cash through billable hours & not actually accomplishing anything except topping up their bank accounts.
Posted by: Fascinated Observer | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 08:45 PM
The backhanders & brown cash filled bags part of the deal still need to be completed.
Posted by: Fascinated Observer | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 08:48 PM
You & I along with every other law abiding taxpayer paid the criminals.
Posted by: Fascinated Observer | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 09:22 PM
Not nobbled just paid off with suitcases of taxpayer cash.
Posted by: Fascinated Observer | Monday, 21 December 2020 at 09:24 PM