Premier not gagged by hotel quarantine probe, inquiry judge says

"Under law, unlike a court, there is no general restriction or prohibition, which would prevent a person from commenting publicly or answering questions to which they know the answers on matters which are the subject of examination by this board of inquiry."The inquiry has received 106,000 pages of documents from government departments and private entities so far, Justice Coate said.

An 11th-hour sitting of the inquiry began at 2pm on Wednesday, where Justice Coate said it was impossible to make sufficient new arrangements to conduct hearings remotely by 10am on Thursday. "I am acutely aware, as are those assisting me, of the community's need to understand what has happened in the hotel quarantine program and the ramifications of it for all of us."Three epidemiologists and genomic sequencing experts – the inquiry's first witnesses – were due to give evidence on Thursday.

"Comments made by the Chief Health Officer to the media have suggested that it may even be that every case of COVID-19 in Victoria in recent weeks could be sourced to the hotel quarantine program," Mr Neal said on July 20.

Disgusting. Labor are a complete disgrace. Andrews is dead man walking.

Gee Whiz. What a surprise 🙄

Being stalled because the govt aren't helping however now Judge Coates has made it clear they can answer questions because it's not a judicial inquiry at all. So let's start with who appointed the security company for the quarantine C***$ can't hide behind the inquiry now..

Quite right too. We don’t need the distraction. Time for the PIR later

How convenient, one would assume after the US elections when the pandemic will just... poof disappear.

Cancel the license of that security agency. At once

The whitewash gets moved DictatorDan CedarAndrews DeadlyDan DanMadeDisaster resignDanAndrews ResignDanielAndrews

what idiot gave the go ahead to a $3 million inquiry, which will do absolutely zero, and have zero impact. Is it to keep her in a job? Someone please explain how this was allowed to happen right now

Is there an election in Ocober? Victoria, the corrupt state.

Is Melbourne's morgue big enough to wait that long? Everyone knows it was more than likely the quarantine hotel and convenient tracking stuff ups.

Now we know why Stage 4 suddenly became such a good idea.

Are you kidding me! Where is the accountability and transparency in this state? Thousands of businesses forced to close and many more jobs lost and we get this!

not good enough

Absolutely disgraceful. If anything is essential to Victorians right now, it is answers to how their institutions & leaders have failed them. You can't have a Government refuse to answer questions for months on end then defer the inquiry they have used to obfuscate responsibility

If we had quarantine facilities available with trained staff, there would be no need for this inquiry in the first place, Gov’s in their skewed wisdom closed these places down putting people out of work and the country at risk.. No respect given for people in Health Care Industry

FFS DanielAndrewsMP this is pure and utter DIRTY POLITICS !!! RESIGN AND GET ScottMorrisonMP TO RUN VICTORIA NOW !!

Everything is Bungled. Everything is stuffed when you're in the Victorian team...

Trust,justice and truth,anathema to politics.

What a surprise!

Quarantine is a federal jurisdiction isnt it?

LNP trolls out en force

All have been well planned by Daniel Andrews, from the Labor stacking scandal before lockdown (so that no one in VIC Labor can vote to challenge him), to stage 4 lockdown - an excuse to delay (coverup) the inquiry finding. SackDanAndrews

Now we will hope the press stop asking DA stupid questions

Surprise surprise!!!

So parliament is supposed to get answers in writing today from Health Minister...and now this. What a shock : red shirts, branch stacking, and now a delayed Quarantine inquiry. So much for transparency of Vic Govt. Zoom meeting anyone. coverupanyone?

Why?

Who said it led to every case in Victoria? The Age? Herald-Sun? Sky? Let’s wait and get the facts. Stop making stuff up

This is not Jane Halton who is leading the enquiry. Jane attended event 201 pandemic simulation exercise in october 2019 and should have prepped Australia better. She failed. He failed.

No doubt when the findings are released they will be redacted by the Vic Govt to the point of the only words on the public record being 'hotel quarantine' & 'Signed Judge Coate'.

In a major victory for Dandemic ResignDanielAndrews

What a surprise!! Dan ‘Stacker’ Andrews introduces measures to have this important inquiry that would most likely find his government culpable to the back burner. This is rather smelly and like so many other restrictions in stage 4 is unnecessary.

Strangely (for me) I agree. I think recriminations can wait

Oh how convenient

Australians are crying for the truth indeed.

C O V E R U P

Colour me shocked. Requested documents have not been provided. Adjourned until Monday 17 August 2020. Maybe The Age should report the facts instead of made up storyline.

I thought covid19 articles were meant to be free!?!?

What a load of bullshit. Have they not heard of VIDEO MESSAGING APPS LIKE ZOOM, TEAMS , SKYPE + 5 million other options

So the headline assumes total eradication was achieved prior to the bungled hotel quarantine. Congrats all round . Utter bullshit coronavirus

Not good enough Hon. Jennifer Coats, the Vic people needs answers for this disaster that happened. It has resulted in the shutdown of businesses and job losses. Why did 30% people that was in quarantine allowed to refuse testing?This is OHS issue,the duty of care was lacking!!!

Which year?

why pay for an inquiry when we know that its all Comrade Andrews fault?

Good, now stop propagandising about DanielAndrewsMP will you. You got what you wanted. A divided state. People disregarding police, people sneaking into NSW & QLD planting the seeds for the future. Now move on and leave the rest of us to clean up and deprogram your mess. auspol

jeff_kennett so they can’t use zoom?

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Premier not gagged by hotel quarantine probe, inquiry judge saysBREAKING: The retired judge leading the inquiry into Victoria's bungled hotel quarantine program says there is nothing preventing the Premier and his ministers answering questions on the scheme now. She should be DEMANDING their answers... But still watch run and hide Focusing on that is a distraction we can do without. It’ll undermine the effort to get this contagion under control & give the RW political rabble oxygen to a trial by media. I’m happy to let it take it’s due course & of course every1 asked, must front the inquiry & answer Q’s.
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Victoria's hotel quarantine inquiry delayed by stage four lockdownThe inquiry into Victoria's bungled hotel quarantine program that could have led to 'every case' of coronavirus in the state's second wave has been delayed and will not release its findings until November We expect Dan to play politics but for a judge to do so is beyond disgusting. She ever here of video meetings? No wonder Dan handpicked her Now we know why Dan handpicked her. A disgrace. There is no such thing as a second wave, and in Aus. our minor ripple over all = 1 week of flu spread over 6 months, do you have no sense of proportion.
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Queensland man not a consular official, DFAT reveals after he bypassed hotel quarantineThe Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reveals a Queensland man with coronavirus, who claimed to be a 'consular official' and avoided hotel quarantine, was actually a private security contractor. It’s about time we stopped granted exemptions for Politicians and TV stars, the rules are for all. What the actual fuck, Australia? Outrageous !
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Queensland bans quarantine exemptions for diplomats after recent coronavirus caseQueensland will no longer offer hotel quarantine exemptions to diplomats after a coronavirus-infected contractor used the loophole to enter the state from Afghanistan. photo_journ We're not learning are we! auspol Everyone that comes in from overseas should be put into hotel quarantine at their expense and that includes superstars, actors, actresses, singers.....no one is important enough to not to hotel it no matter how rich you are. So they should be
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All residents returning to NSW from Victoria must go into hotel quarantineAll residents returning to NSW from Victoria must go into hotel quarantine. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the hotel quarantine will be paid by the travellers, not the state government |kaubo photo by nampix Story: Kaubo nampix Cue the covid bots in 3.2.1 Kaubo nampix Bloody finally! Kaubo nampix Get them to pay👍That will remove the time wasters moving around placing all others at risk.
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Leaked emails show Victoria's hotel quarantine system was stretched, cobbled togetherWas it the Department of Jobs who had hastily engaged the security guards for hotel quarantine? Or was it the monolithic DHHS? Victoria looks for answers to an inquiry starting on Thursday. Karens slept with guards, hold them accountable too! Well, seeing as it was such a fuckup, no one wants to admit it was their mess!!! Money and profit is what is at the heart of this debacle. Security companies undercutting each other to gain contracts and not having the required staff to fulfil the contracts. In fact, it sounds a lot like the aged care industry. Government subsidies and not enough staff.
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