Vic inquiry damning but ‘courageous’ premier refuses to resign
DANIEL Andrews says it would be “cowardice’’ for him to resign, after a sharply critical inquiry found his government failed to meet its responsibilities over the bungles in the hotel quarantine program that ultimately killed 801 people.
Blaming former health minister Jenny Mikakos and former DHHS secretary Kym Peake, Mr Andrews said he would not be “cutting and running’’ after former judge Jennifer Coate found the government’s failure to identify who decided to hire private security guards was at odds with the Westminster system of responsible government.
Acknowledging there would be “people missing from the Christmas table on Friday’’ as a result of the failures that sparked Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19, Mr Andrews said he was sorry for mistakes and would adopt all 81 recommendations: “I’m accountable, I’m a leader of the state but that cutting and running thing, that’s not accountability, that’s cowardice and you won’t get that from me,’’ he said.
Deeply disappointed Sebastian Agnello, whose mother Carmela, 92, died during the second wave, said the inquiry was “not worth the paper that it’s written on”.
“He knows this inquiry was a farce,” Mr Agnello said.
Ms Coate found the decision to hire private security guards could not be traced to any individual, and did not happen at ministerial level.
But she criticised that Mr Andrews, Ms Mikakos, Police Minister Lisa Neville and Jobs Minister Martin Pakula had no “active role in, or oversight of’’ how hotel quarantine would be enforced.
“On its face, this was at odds with any normal application of the principles of the Westminster system of responsible government,’’ she found.
Ms Coate also found the fact that 70,000 documents failed to identify who had made the decision would likely “shock the public’’.