Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has accepted responsibility for the mess involving hotel quarantine.Credit:Simon Schluter
Mr Pakula’s Department of Jobs,Precincts and Regions hired three security companies to provide guards for the quarantine hotels after the state government’s bureaucracy was given just 24 hours on March 27 to organise the program.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Friday said he accepted responsibility for Victoria’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine debacle,which has contributed to a second surge of the deadly virus in Melbourne and a fresh lockdown of hundreds of thousands of residents.
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But Labor ministers,including Mr Pakula,are now under intense scrutiny after the governmenttraced much of the fresh outbreak in Melbourne’s north and west back to the hotels and the security guards working there.
At least five state government departments were involved in the decision to deploy private security guards,instead of soldiers or police,to keep watch over returned travellers locked in hotel rooms.
The exact role of the departments and their ministers - Police Minister Lisa Neville,Health Minister Jenny Mikakos,Mr Pakula and the Premier himself - remains unclear,but the whole scandal will be examined by former Supreme Court judge Jennifer Coate.
After his ministersdeclined to accept responsibility for the fiasco on Thursday,Mr Andrews fronted a press conference on Friday and said he understood why questions were being asked.