Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry hears ADF support was offered

• An inquiry into Victoria’s botched hotel quarantine program has heard the Commonwealth did offer to send Australian troops to guard sick travellers
• This contradicts a previous claim by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who said he didn’t believe The Australian Defence Force support was on offer
• The inquiry has also heard the Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp wasn’t interested in using troops
• Instead, private guards were used to oversee the program which resulted in huge breaches and COVID-19 being introduced back into Melbourne
• Commissioner Andrew Crisp also confirmed he was told there were issues with the private guards, including the fact some weren’t social distancing

An inquiry into Victoria’s botched hotel quarantine program has heard the Commonwealth did offer to send Australian troops to guard sick travellers.

This is in direct contradiction to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews previous claim, where he said he didn’t believe The Australian Defence Force support was on offer.

“I don’t believe the use of ADF support was on offer,” The Premier told a hearing last month.

“[It’s] fundamentally incorrect to assert that there were hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow, someone said no,” he added.

But, recordings of key meetings between officials in late March were played at the hotel inquiry — revealing ADF support was offered multiple times from March through to June.

While an email also shows the Prime Minister’s office was in direct contact with Daniel Andrew’s office about using Australian military personnel.

The inquiry has also revealed Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp was against using troops at the hotels early on.

A recording of a meeting held on March 27 shows the Victorian Government knew the ADF was an option, but instead, they opted to use private guards.

“Yes, there’s some interesting media reporting around the role of the ADF — we greatly value the role of the ADF,” Commissioner Crisp said in the recording.

“But at this stage … at this particular point in time, we certainly don’t see the need for boots on the ground for this particular operation,” he added.

Ultimately, it’s these guards which allowed breaches to occur — resulting in a huge second wave of infections in Melbourne, which peaked with over 700 cases in a single day.

It also prompted vast, sweeping lockdowns of the city and wider state, which have still yet to be lifted.

The inquiry was launched in July this year to investigate what went wrong with the program, by interviewing those involved.

The Commissioner was extensively questioned yesterday and revealed he had actually been notified of problems within the hotel quarantine program.

Andrew Crisp said from as early as March 30, just days after the program was established using private guards, officials were told of ‘challenges’.

In particular, they were notified that staff were not good at following social distancing practices and infection control practices.

Commissioner Crisp also revealed a request to bring in the ADF in June was ultimately shot down after police were instead offered up as an alternative.

The Victorian Government began diverting international flights from June 29, amid reports the quarantine program had failed.