Commenting on the story: Ex-minister, top cop question responsibility for Victoria’s hotel quarantine fiasco

I am just stunned that the inquiry failed to identify who authorised the use of private security guards.

I have worked in IT for 40 years or so, supporting state and federal government agencies and private enterprise, implementing whole of government email systems, so yes I know a thing or two about how stuff works.

Did the security company just decide to turn up at the quarantine hotels? Of course not. It just does not work that way, they would only send a team of personnel if they had a direct communication, if not a purchase order, from the government.

Such things generally come from a financial system, like SAP, which would have an audit trail. The government say they “can’t find it”. Fine. Then ask the security company for it. They must have it, unless we really do believe they just showed up on a whim. (If you believe that, Santa Claus is coming real soon too.) 

The expense must have been authorised/signed off by someone. To think that any such contractual engagement simply cannot be traced is, quite frankly, not credible.

I also heard months ago that an email sent to the security firm was “unable to be found”. Rubbish. Email from Government departments goes through exchange servers and, guess what, they keep backups.

Any half-decent IT person could search the backups and find any and all emails sent to a given recipient, eg Security Firm X between any given dates, in about three minutes flat.

Seems to me, somebody is just not trying very hard to get to the bottom of this issue. – Trevor Norman

It seems impossible to believe that this inquiry could not find anyone responsible for hiring private security staff for their medi-hotels.

The security companies must have emails or correspondence from whoever hired them? The payments must have been authorised by a Government department?

It was at best a lame duck exercise by an obvious lame duck retired judge. No wonder their court system is so ineffectual. – Edward Jaeger

I just love the way Chairman Dan says that if the former minister was still minister, he would demand her resignation, because that is “accountability”.

But when it come to him resigning, that would be “cowardice” as it is up to him to fix the problem.

Maybe his logic is what is the problem? – Fred Driver

Commenting on the story: Historic Urrbrae gatehouse to bulldozed, but study finds relocating it is ‘feasible’

I watch Heavy Haulers on Seven Plus, where an American family move massive 1500-ton buildings to save their local community history, but we can’t be bothered to move one small historical building.

We have so little historical buildings left, please save the Urrbrae gatehouse. – David Woolford