The inquiry found that the decision to employ private security guards for the program was an "orphan", that neither Mr Andrews nor any of his ministers took responsibility for, unable to be traced back to any individual.
She said it failed to answer key questions about why police or Defence Force personnel were not used in hotel quarantine instead of security guards. When Mr Andrews announced on June 30 that Justice Coate would lead an inquiry into the hotels program, he told a press conference that "there have been some breaches of well known and well understood infection control protocols" by private security guards. He gave the example that guards had spread COVID-19 by sharing cigarette lighters.to tell a national audience: "We have some very clear suspicions about what's gone on here.
"Just as DHHS did not see itself as the control agency responsible for the Program, it did not see itself as ‘in charge’ on-site," Justice Coate found. "This left brewing the disaster that tragically came to be." "This also meant, at times, not performing some duties if it presented additional risk to our guards," he said. "We're confident Wilson Security demonstrated how private security could have been utilised appropriately for the program."
Associate Professor Aaron Martin, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne's School of Social Political Sciences, said there was a "signal and noise" problem where it may not have been apparent to department secretaries which pieces of information should have been relayed to the minister.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)
michaelfowler08 Hmmmmmmm