Sky News Australia – Oct 9, 2020
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the hotel quarantine inquiry has not requested his outgoing telephone records to fill in a mystery six-minute window which could shed light on who decided to use private security guards.
“She’s not even asked,” Mr Andrews said of Jennifer Coate, who leads the inquiry.
“If requests were made … of course we would provide and be cooperative in any way we possibly could.”
Sky News host Peta Credlin grilled Mr Andrews on his reluctance to freely provide the evidence – pointing out the inquiry does not have the power to request the records. “It is not in their power,” she said.
“The inquiry that you have established, led by Jennifer Coate, under the Victorian Inquiries Act does not have the power to request from you or your chief of staff or Mr Eccles’ phone records.
“That is only under the federal telecommunications interception act, it is not a power or an ability open to Justice Coate.
“But you, as an individual, your chief of staff and Mr Eccles can willingly provide that information now and completely clear up this six-minute period that has been, I think, the subject of a lot of debate and conjecture, you could clear that up tomorrow with your own free provision of records available to you now.
“We would be able to tell who called him if you, your chief of staff or Mr Eccles provided your phone records at that time, and if you did not call Mr Ashton, this whole matter would be cleared up.”
Mr Andrews said the inquiry board had not sought additional powers or raised concerns about deficiencies in its evidence-gathering.
“The board, in my judgement, has the powers it needs, they’ve not sought any additional powers, they’ve not highlighted to me or anyone else that I’m aware of any deficiencies or gaps in their terms of reference or in the powers and functions, the abilities they that they have,” he said.
“Having looked at nearly 300,000 pages, having heard from witnesses, from far and wide, I am confident if they believe there is a deficiency, or an incompleteness, in terms of the picture that they are working with, it is in their power to raise those matters.”