Hotel quarantine party a clear code violation

Last week, COVID Quarantine Victoria wanted to thank some staff of the Australian Open hotel quarantine program.The job wasn’t finished, but what the hell?Did they present them with chocolates? A bottle of wine?COVID Quarantine Victoria instead gathered frontline workers from hotels where guests were infected.They put about 60 of the highest risk workers in the community – workers in a bigger program mired in controversy, failings and scandals – on the beers together. The instinctive reaction? Let’s start with the harsher descriptions for Victorian hotel quarantine failings which led to 800 deaths last year: “dumb”, “dangerous” and “crazy”.

Who arranged the party? Did they think it would pass the pub test? Does COVID Quarantine Victoria live in a parallel universe where the wider rules – which they enforce – do not apply to their own programs?The timing was terrible. The program has not been a success at all. Three days after the View Hotel party, a 26-year-old man working at an Australian Open hotel tested positive.His case imperilled the tournament – always an ambitious undertaking – and brought changes to the way all Victorians go about their days.The man had tested negative, and it remains unclear how he contracted the virus. He had done everything right, we’re told – and yet he has the virus.Tin-eared celebrations are not new to government bodies.

Last April Global Victoria produced an in-house video congratulating itself on its role in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.Chief executive Gonul Serbest said the program was “extremely rewarding to work on”. The supposed slowing of the virus spread “makes us really proud of the work we have been doing”.A few weeks later, the first worker case was confirmed. A few months later, hundreds of Victorians were dead – because of failings in the system that Global Victoria boasted about.Friday’s testing data is encouraging, but we remain on the cusp of another outbreak.The tennis will go ahead, it seems, but bringing in so many people from so many infected parts of the world still gnaws as an odd priority. Call the hotel worker party a code violation. The kind that jeopardises lives and undermines the efforts and hardships of every Victorian.It is another unforced error in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.How many more can we afford?