$95M in fines, but prosecutions unlikely as Victoria counts the cost of its hotel quarantine disaster

$95 million worth of hotel quarantine blunders - but will anyone be prosecuted?

One arm of the Victorian government is suing another over the state’s hotel quarantine disaster.

WorkSafe, the health and safety watchdog, has charged Victoria's health department with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The charges are in relation to the state's bungled hotel quarantine program.

WorkSafe has alleged the Department of Health failed to provide a safe working environment for employees, which put non-employees at risk.

The department failed to put in place adequate infection prevention guidelines and training. This put staff and contracted security guards at risk. 

The department now faces more than $95 million in fines and as one The Australian writer pointed out “Victoria has become the laughingstock of the nation’s legal fraternity as no office bearers were involved in the writs, meaning it’s akin to suing the gun rather than the trigger puller.

Victoria once led the nation in safety regulation, but its decline is spreading to the rest of the country.

Rowena Orr QC, who was prominent in the banking inquiry, will have a major role to play as Victoria’s Solicitor-General and will be supported by a team of Australia’s best occupational health and safety lawyers.

These lawyers are attempting to enforce the spirit of Victoria’s occupational health and safety rules, which look to have come apart during the hotel quarantine saga.

Under those rules, while broad, the definition of a worksite applies to quarantine hotels. It also encompasses the protection of employees and everyone in the community.

Further to this, breaches of the act apply to what people do or don’t do. In the case of hotel quarantine, one alleged offence was failure to ensure proper infection control procedures.

Breaches have already been highlighted by Jennifer Coate during the hotel quarantine inquiry.

Coates highlighted disagreements at senior levels of two departments – health and jobs – over who oversaw the program.

Bureaucratic dysfunction led to complete mismanagement and chaos in the hotels.

Coates blames “lack of proper leadership and oversight” for COVID outbreaks in quarantine and described the program as a “catastrophe waiting to happen” and a “disaster that tragically came to be.”

Interestingly, citizens can request WorkSafe prosecute individuals under Victorian law. While this is unlikely to happen, despite safety issues concerns around reckless endangerment, individuals are unlikely to be prosecuted.

This is despite lawyers finding four ministers, 16 public servants, the state of Victoria, four departments and the Trades Hall Council should be prosecuted.

Despite this $95 million in fines is about as far as it will go and this will be paid for by the taxpayer.

Irit Jackson, 30^th September 2021