The Rydges on Swanston hotel was guarded by Unified.Credit:Justin McManus
The redacted emails reveal the disagreement was because Unified was not on the department's preferred list of tenderers. However,some of the public servants in charge of the program wanted to hire them anyway partly because they"employ loads of Jobs Victoria clients,so it's actually serving a broader purpose”. Jobs Victoria acts as an employment agency finding work for the unemployed.
Inquiry board chair Jennifer Coate on Thursday announced the due date for her findings had been extended to December 21 after her team sought further information and answers from key government figures,including Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.
Even so,Mr Andrews said he was confident international flights would be allowed into Victoria before Christmas. An interim report is due to be handed down next Friday,the date the final report was originally supposed to be finalised,and the Premier told his daily COVID-19 press conference on Thursday that meant the government would hit national cabinet's target of having international flights resume by Christmas.
The government has made no announcements about a new quarantine program,and will not do so until it receives the inquiry's interim report.
Hotel quarantine inquiry chair Jennifer Coate.
Unified won the bulk of hotel quarantine work in Melbourne,earning more than $30 million in less than four months. But guards working for the company were infected with COVID-19 in the Rydges on Swanston,which has been linked to at least 90 per cent of cases in Victoria’s second coronavirus wave.
The Department of Jobs,Precincts and Regions has claimed legal privilege over a number of emails created in early April,just days after the quarantine program began. A lot of them have therefore been redacted. The emails involve correspondence between the department’s legal and procurement teams,which became involved after it was discovered Unified was not on the government’s panel of pre-approved security suppliers.