What happened in the hotel quarantine inquiry on Wednesday
Senior Andrews government ministers have admitted they had little or no knowledge of key decisions about the ill-fated hotel quarantine program until after they were made – and in some cases their departments did not brief them on developments.
The first was an email by Public Health Commander Finn Romanes, backed by Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, showing concerns about "a risk to the health and safety of detainees" because of governance problems. Ms Peake did not brief her minister on the email because "I was satisfied that the issues that had been raised had been addressed," she said.Within days of that email, a suspected suicide occurred in hotel quarantine.
Ms Neville said she was told within hours of national cabinet deciding on March 27 to detain all returning overseas travellers in hotels that private security guards were to be hired to guard the Melbourne quarantine hotels. Ms Neville said she took Mr Crisp's mention of private security to mean that the decision had been made at some point before the meeting "that private security was the front line". However, "I do not know who made the decision to engage private security contractors," the minister's witness statement reads.
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