As I’ve said before, Daniel Andrews really does seem to be determined to steal Tommy Bent’s crown as Victoria’s most corrupt premier. Victorian voters have, to date, not just tolerated Andrews’ nefarious activities, but rewarded them. Despite scandals from the Red Shirts to decimating the much-loved Country Fire Authority in order to pay off union mates, Victorians gifted Andrews’ Labor party an increased majority at the 2018 state election.
Whether “Dictator Dan” survives the raft of scandals falling out of the Wuhan pandemic remains to be seen. Certainly, the sight of police handcuffing pregnant women in their pyjamas isn’t a good look. Nor are the damning revelations about Andrews’ shockingly botched hotel quarantine scheme which released a wave of infections and has hammered the national economy to the tune of tens of billions.
As has previously been reported in The BFD, we now know that, unlike every other state, Victoria refused police or military assistance. Instead, the job was handed to private security – in particular a firm operating on an expired licence which was nonetheless given the tender on the strength of its “indigenous” credentials. Guards with no experience were hired over Gumtree and WhatsApp, given no training, and left to deal with “people going absolutely nuts”.
Now, there are allegations that the company awarded the contract to undertake medical services to hotel quarantine was run by Labor mates.
Opposition Health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier pelted Labor’s Health Minister, Jenny Mikakos, with an onslaught of pointed questions in parliament.
“Minister, Medi7 was awarded the contract to undertake medical services to hotel quarantine. The company is owned by the brothers Dr Henry Pinskier and Nathan Pinskier. Both are long-time donors to the Labor Party, and as you would rightly know, Minister, Dr Pinskier was a vice-president of your party. So I ask: did the government award these contracts to Medi7 via a competitive tender process, and if so, how many other providers were considered?”
Mikakos avoided directly answering Crozier’s question, instead reeling off fluff about what an “excellent job” the Labor mates’ company was doing. She then “reject[ed] the insinuation” of Crozier’s questioning – without identifying what the insinuation was supposed to be.
As Crozier dryly responded, “Well, I would say that was ‘No, there wasn’t a competitive tender process’, clearly”.
Crozier also pointed out that, Mikakos’ praise for Medi7’s “excellent job” notwithstanding, Medi7 did not have specialist infection control capabilities.
“So on what basis did you grant them this vital contract in hotel quarantine, which was supposed to keep travellers safe and to stop the escape ofthe virus into the community, that has led to this absolute devastation in Victoria at present?”
Another bombshell revelation was that a member of the Pinskier family, who own Medi7, “is a key adviser inside the Premier’s private office”.
Which Pinskier daughter that refers to is unclear. Abby Pinskier, rose from being a receptionist at the Health Services Union Victoria Number 1 Branch, to a staffer for former Victorian Labor party member and minister, Philip Dalidakis. Rebecca Pinskier worked as a staffer for former ALP federal MP Michael Danby.
Dalidakis in 2017 praised “our dear friends Henry and Marcia Pinskier” in Victoria’s parliament. Danby called Henry “one of his ‘three musketeers’” in his maiden speech in Canberra.
Perhaps Medi7 has indeed done an excellent job, as the Victorian Health Minister asserts. But awarding such a sensitive contract, allegedly without competitive tender process, to a company run by Labor mates isn’t doing anything to rid the stench of corruption from a shockingly incompetent government whose balls-up of its entire hotel quarantine scheme unleashed, to date, tens of thousands of infections and hundreds of deaths. Not to mention tens of billions of dollars in economic havoc.
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