Thanks for commenting Tony.

I thought it was important to let readers know that Phillips’ efforts to force WorkSafe Victoria to act seem to have failed.

On the issue of accountability, I draw your attention to other articles I have written about OHS accountability – https://safetyatworkblog.com/?s=accountability – especially the article on Tooma from 2010 (https://safetyatworkblog.com/2010/08/24/tooma-takes-aim-at-the-environment-minister-over-accountability/) and an article on the Home Insulation Program Royal Commission (https://safetyatworkblog.com/2013/08/12/judicial-inquiry-into-insulation-dominated-by-election-campaign-politics/).

I suspect you – as would anyone who’s spent reasonable hours walking the beat in the OHS space – have participated in many, many, MANY workplace investigations. (Probably headed-up many of those investigations, as well.) And while most are low fidelity events that usually require little more than some photos, a statement or two and a report with a smattering of recommendations some of the other events were, unfortunately, much bigger boppers. Those ones attract the crowd. They force attention and focus to be squeezed into areas and cul-de-sacs one would never usually expect to end up at. Yet, to my way of thinking that’s one of the brilliant characteristics of a thorough investigative process. A little bit like that catch-cry from the mid-90s NT tourism campaign: with every element of an investigation’s line of enquiry if you never, ever go you will never, ever know.

So, you “go there”.

You ask questions and keep on drilling until you’re satisfied you have arrived at a fact, or a truth in so much as you are able to, within the boundaries of the resources at your disposal. And you verify. Every step of the way. You verify everything. You do everything within your powers to wring out the truth, no matter how unpalatable it may end up looking like.

I cannot recall an investigation I have participated in that allowed a line of enquiry to pull up stumps with conclusions such as “I don’t know”, “I don’t recall”, or words of a similar ilk. And certainly not an enquiry prompted by the deaths of 801 people. If the person being asked didn’t know an answer to a reasonable question in circumstances where it is reasonable they should know, ask them for the contact details of someone who would be able to answer the question. Or ask them where you could find out the answer. Because someone knows. Every. Single. Time. Somebody always knows who did something, or failed to do something. Or there’s evidence that can point to someone doing something. Or failing to do something.

As a ‘for instance’, pretend a senior government figure did now know who signed the contract that, say, awarded a lucrative job to an out-of-state private security firm. (And IMO it is entirely reasonable they would not know that level of detail.) Grab a copy of said contract, or documentation that supported how the company was awarded the gig, and see whose name(s) and signature(s) appear. And work backwards from there. Rocket science, it is not.

I will never pretend to be across every nuanced aspect of the 801 deaths from Covid during Victoria’s second wave. And while it is possible (maybe… probable?) I am a member of that fringe community you alluded to (though I don’t pay fees to be part of the gang. And can’t tell you who our leader is…) it has constantly astounded me that – unless I am entirely misreading the tea leaves – nobody, yet, appears to have been held accountable.

For 801 deaths, Kevin.