Harry S Truman famously had a sign on his desk: “The Buck Stops Here”. Daniel Andrews, on the other hand, is obviously determined that the buck will stop anywhere and everywhere but his own desk.
The roster of heads that have rolled over Victoria’s hotel quarantine disaster is beginning to pile up – and it’s noticeable who’s not getting the axe.
Former Health Minister Jenny Mikakos might have seemed a natural person to blame for the fiasco – except that Premier Andrews bypassed her department completely. Instead, the hotel quarantine scheme that led to 800 deaths and tens of billions drained from the national economy was designed and implemented by Jobs Minister Martin Pakula and his department. Pakula is still secure in his job.
Now, as revelations pile up that Victoria’s second hotel quarantine scheme is another litany of failures, heads are rolling again – but the finger of blame is noticeably punching down.
The director of Infection Prevention and Control in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program has gone on leave in the wake of revelations about the troubled scheme.
Giulietta Pontivivo has taken leave after the government stood down her colleague, IPC general manager, Matiu Bush, and The Australian revealed the duo had been counselled over an IPC breach at the Pullman Hotel on March 1.
Both might well be described as arrogant dills. Bush’s conduct seems particularly egregious: refusing mandatory tests, breaching infection controls and defiantly vaping inside a quarantine hotel, despite being warned that the e-cigarette mist was an infection-spreading hazard. Pontivivo’s behaviour shows a similar contempt for the rules that apparently only apply to the little people.
The Australian reported that on March 1, Mr Bush, Ms Pontivivo and another staffer entered the Pullman Hotel at 12.57pm.
“When signing in they were asked to sign in via their personal QR code,” a March 2 operational incident review says. “They refused, stating that as they have been vaccinated they are not required to do so and instead manually signed in the visitor log.”
The report says that about 3.30pm, Mr Bush and either Ms Pontivivo or the other staffer entered the Mercure Hotel main entrance “as another person was leaving the building”.
“Both walked past the sanitising station without sanitising and also did not change masks,” it says.
“When approached by reception staff they said (they) had ducked out for coffee, and that the hotel is empty anyway. They were asked to sign in and said they had done so at the Pullman.”
So they signed in manually, which is perfectly allowable. Where’s the problem?
Avoiding infection controls is a more serious breach – at least in the case of a quarantine hotel – but is it really a sackable offence?
Certainly, the Victorian government clearly didn’t think so. At least, at first.
The state government had initially maintained counselling Mr Bush was an adequate response to his conduct but took tougher action when The Australian disclosed his behaviour as part of an special investigation into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.
The Australian
This is beginning to sound a lot like a PR exercise by a panicked government trying to avoid scrutiny by offering up a few sacrificial lambs.
Meanwhile, the people who are supposed to be in charge of the state are determinedly avoiding shouldering even a small amount of blame.
As Lord Farquaad might say, “Some of you may be sacked – but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make”.
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