There is an old saying dont mess with the wogs. Well done Mikakos
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/hotel-inquiry-releases-mikakos-final-evidence-20201009-p563i0.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0tI9JW9gtVGhSPRDhjph-A4kZwIfMTDRjg_3jVgUOO6CPfRcljT4SJyzk#Echobox=1602195403Treat with caution': Mikakos turns on Premier in parting shot over hotel quarantine failures
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Ex-health minister Jenny Mikakos says Premier Daniel Andrews' evidence about private security in Victoria's hotel quarantine program should be "treated with caution" in a stinging rebuke to her former boss.
In an explosive final submission to the hotel quarantine inquiry published on Friday, Ms Mikakos says Mr Andrews' decision to "subvert" the usual Cabinet processes may have contributed to the errors made in the ill-fated program and says it is "nonsense" for her alone to be held accountable.
Ms Mikakos resigned last month, just a day after Mr Andrews told the inquiry he held her "accountable" for the botched program that sparked the state's disastrous second coronavirus wave, which has claimed the lives of more than 750 people, cost the economy $12 billion and forced Melburnians into the strictest lockdown in the country.
She said her resignation should not be understood as an "admission of responsibility" for the quarantine program and accountability was shared with Jobs Minister Martin Pakula.
Her claims have reignited calls from the opposition for the Premier to resign and a royal commission to be held, with shadow attorney-general Edward O'Donohue saying: "What it shows is we have a government that is at war with itself."
It would be nonsense ... for the DHHS, and through it, Ms Mikakos, to be considered to be solely responsible and solely accountable for the hotel quarantine program.
Jenny Mikakos' final submission
Ms Mikakos has told the inquiry it is "implausible" to suggest no one made the decision to use private security to guard returned travellers in Melbourne's quarantine hotels.
Lawyers for the inquiry submitted last week that the decision to use private security guards "[was] not really a decision at all" but a "creeping assumption" among top bureaucrats that was not questioned by anyone.
"With respect, such a submission has insufficient regard to the realities of governmental operation and decision-making," Ms Mikakos' submission reads.
"It is respectfully submitted that the Board ought to treat with caution the Premier's evidence where he sought to explain the reference to the use of private security in the hotel quarantine program."
Mr Andrews told the inquiry he could not recall why he made mention of private security in a press conference on March 27 when he announced that international arrivals would be subjected to mandatory quarantine.
But Ms Mikakos said the Premier would not have announced the use of private security if a decision had not already been made.
"In this regard, it is observed that no evidence was led about what briefings were provided to the Premier by his office in advance of that media conference," her submission reads.
Ms Mikakos said the weight of evidence points to an actual decision being made during the course of, or soon after, the meeting of National Cabinet about midday on March 27.
"This decision had substantial cost and resource implications for the state and it is inherently
unlikely, if not implausible, that such a decision would be the result of a 'creeping assumption' rather than a considered choice at an elevated level of government," she said.
Coronavirus: Jenny Mikakos resigns following hotel quarantine failure
Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has resigned following the state’s failed hotel quarantine failure.
The former minister said that was the only "cogent explanation" for the contemporaneous text message sent soon after the National Cabinet meeting by former Chief Police Commissioner Graham Ashton to his federal counterpart that "our DPC (Department of Premier and Cabinet)" had set up a deal for private security.
Ms Mikakos said the decision not to use Defence Force personnel was inextricably linked to the decision to use private security. She added that Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp's view that troops weren't needed was "presumably because a decision had been taken to use private security guards".
Ms Mikakos and Health Department Secretary Kym Peake have consistently maintained the hotel quarantine program was a "multi-agency operation with shared accountability".
Jobs Minister 'jointly responsible, accountable', Mikakos says
Jobs Minister Martin Pakula did not escape criticism, with Ms Mikakos maintaining that he shared the responsibility for the program.
Her submission urges the inquiry to find that both the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions were "jointly responsible".
"It would be a [sic] nonsense, it is submitted, for the DHHS, and through it, Ms Mikakos, to be
considered to be solely responsible and solely accountable for the hotel quarantine program," the submission says.
Mikakos blames subversion of Cabinet process
Ms Mikakos said the decision to subvert normal state Cabinet procedures was "the root cause of some of the issues", including differing views about who had overall responsibility and the "cause of the obscurity as to the identity of the decision-maker for important elements".
She also said she and other ministers did not cross-examine the Premier during the inquiry, despite having separate legal representation, as it might be considered "politically disadvantageous" or "improper".
The former minister maintained she first became aware private security were being used in hotel quarantine following the outbreak at the Rydges on Swanston in late May.
She said revelations that she attended a press conference with Mr Pakula on March 29, where he mentioned security arrangements, did not contradict her evidence to the inquiry.
Ms Mikakos maintained she told the inquiry she first became aware and "first had reason to turn her mind" to the use of security guards following the outbreaks.
She was "disappointed" that her department, via Secretary Kym Peake, did not brief her on "significant issues" in the hotels program. But the former minister said those failures occurred in "extraordinary circumstances" where ordinary decision-making mechanism and lines of accountability had been replaced the Premier's creation of the Crisis Council of Cabinet.
The submission says Ms Mikakos had "many responsibilities" for the COVID-19 response, but she played "no role in the critical decision to use private security in the front line, or the terms on which they were contracted. Nor did her department".
"For those decisions, others must take responsibility," the submission ends.
The inquiry, led by former judge Jennifer Coate, is due to deliver its final report on November 6.
