Victoria hotel quarantine inquiry: police minister 'doesn't know' who decided on private security
The Victorian police minister, Lisa Neville, has said she does not know who made the decision to use private security guards in the state’s troubled hotel quarantine system, and she only knew of a request for Australian defence force support when she read it in a newspaper.
Neville told the hotel quarantine inquiry on Wednesday she first heard about the use of security guards in the hotels for returning travellers at a 2pm meeting held on 27 March when hotel quarantine was announced.
In the meeting with departmental officials, emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp and then-police commissioner Graham Ashton, it was Crisp who first mentioned private security would be used.
“I took that as a decision had been made, at some point that private security was the front line,” she said.
“It was really just provided as a factual piece of information … And it was clear to me and I think to both commissioners that a decision had already been taken about the front line of enforcement for hotels.”
When asked whether she was surprised Ashton has claimed to have not been consulted on the decision to use private security, Neville said it was her expectation he would have been consulted.
The inquiry has yet to determine who made the decision to use private security, with various government agencies so far denying responsibility for making the decision. It has been the focus of the inquiry due to infection control breaches at two hotels, including among over a dozen security guards, leading to 99% of Covid-19 cases in Victoria since late May and the state’s second wave.
The only apparent consensus is on the day a decision was made – 27 March – but as yet no one has been able to pinpoint any one person who made the decision.
On Tuesday, Simon Phemister, the secretary of the Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions, indicated he believed it was a decision made in a 4.30pm meeting. It was his agency that ultimately signed contracts with the security firms.
On 25 June, Crisp made a request for 850 ADF personnel for use in hotel quarantine, but it was cancelled the following day. Neville told the inquiry she was unaware a request had been made until she read the Herald Sun’s front page at midnight.
“So I became aware of that request, when I checked the newspaper front pages of the Herald Sun, I was checking all the papers, but that’s where I became aware of it, which was just after midnight on the 25th of June,” she said.
Related: 'Cowboy industry': public servants warned about using security guards in Victoria's hotels
Neville texted Crisp questioning what the ADF would do at hotels “given no one leaves!! And they [ADF] have no powers”. When asked about whether this meant she was concerned about the ADF’s role, Neville said the use of exclamation points reflected that she was “still slightly cranky about the fact that I had discovered this via the Herald Sun article just after midnight”.
Neville said her concern was that the Victorian government needed to demonstrate to the federal government that the ADF’s role was filling in gaps.
“In my view, in enforcement areas, there is an issue because the ADF cannot enforce.”
The health minister, Jenny Mikakos, will front the inquiry on Thursday morning, while the premier, Daniel Andrews, will give evidence on Friday afternoon.
