Daniel Andrews thought Victoria was not entitled to much ADF help - The Age

Premier Daniel Andrews emerged from a meeting of national cabinet before hotel quarantine was set up on March 27 believing Victoria would not be given as much help from the Australian Defence Force as NSW.

However, any request for help was an “operational decision” for those in the State Control Centre and not his, Mr Andrews told the hotel quarantine inquiry on Friday.

Despite a number of pieces of evidence presented to the inquiry that the Commonwealth made several offers of ADF troops to Victoria's anti-coronavirus effort, the Premier told Parliament in August that it was "fundamentally incorrect to assert that there was hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no”.

Grilled about his knowledge of the quarantine program, Mr Andrews said he had been “generally aware” ADF support was available. However, Mr Andrews said in a statement: "After the national cabinet meeting on 27 March 2020, I understood that any ADF support ... would be provided where necessary and according to need”, and that "I understood that NSW was seen as having the greater need at that time".

"I did not understand, on the basis of the meeting, that Victoria would be receiving extensive ADF support in its implementation of the decision.”

After the crucial national cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made comments on the subject at a press conference which, according to Mr Andrews, “advanced a more generous position regarding the allocation of ADF personnel than had earlier been indicated”.

“I was not aware of any other offer of ADF personnel for the operation of the program at its inception,” Mr Andrews said in his statement.

After that point, any attempt to call on military assistance became a matter for the State Control Centre, Mr Andrews said. On two more occasions, ADF help was discussed between Victoria and the Commonwealth but Mr Andrews said he had not been aware of either of them.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews swearing in at hotel quarantine inquiry.

The first offer came on April 8, when the secretary of the Prime Minister's Department, Phil Gaetjens, emailed the secretary of Mr Andrews' Department of Premier and Cabinet, Chris Eccles, who had asked the Commonwealth for financial assistance for the hotel quarantine program.

Mr Gaetjens replied that the only financial help the Commonwealth could offer was "in-kind provision of ADF personnel", as it had in NSW.

"I am sure the Commonwealth would be willing to assist Victoria if you wanted to reconsider your operating model," Mr Gaetjens wrote.

Mr Eccles replied, "Thanks Phil."

Mr Eccles has earlier told the inquiry that he could not say whether he took that offer further. There was no evidence that he had passed it on to anyone else. Mr Andrews said he saw the email for the first time when preparing for his evidence to the inquiry. He had never been told about the Commonwealth offer, he said.

"Given that it's so at odds with what I took away from the national cabinet meeting I think it would have been very significant to me and I can't predict what outcome it would have had," Mr Andrews said.

The second time ADF help was contemplated for Victoria was on June 24, when Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp made a request for 850 Australian Defence Force personnel to replace private security guards in hotel quarantine. That request was rescinded hours later, with no public explanation.

Mr Andrews, like his key ministers, said he only became aware of that request on the morning after, when he read it in the newspaper, though he said it had been an "operational decision" and he as Premier did not expect to be briefed on it.

However, he also gave evidence that on June 23, the day before the request was made, the government’s Crisis Cabinet had started a review that was looking at Corrections Victoria and Victoria Police taking control of overseeing quarantining travellers.

“Changes were expected … for those reasons, when I became aware of Emergency Management Commissioner Crisp’s 24 June request, I was concerned that it might cut across the development of the new model for supervision services.”

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2020-09-25 06:38:00Z
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