Former police commissioner Graham Ashton has told the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry it was top Victorian bureaucrat Chris Eccles who led him to believe private security would be used.
The ex-police chief's recollection of a phone call at 1.17 pm on March 27 was detailed in a fresh sworn statement tendered to the inquiry on Friday.
It was one of a raft of documents called for by the inquiry in a final attempt to nail down who made the decision that ultimately led to Victoria's second coronavirus wave.
Mr Ashton wrote that he and Mr Eccles spoke for 136 seconds following a meeting of the national cabinet.
"At least part of this conversation involved Mr Eccles informing me regarding the potential use of the ADF to guard returned travellers during the transfer from their flights and the use of private security to guard them at the hotels," he wrote.
"But my belief as to what he told me in this regard is based only on the inference which I draw from the contents of the text message which I sent to AFP Commr Reece Kershaw".
This text to Mr Ashton's AFP counterpart was sent just minutes after the call with Mr Eccles, saying he had been advised private security would be used.
Mr Eccles maintained he could not recall the content of the conversation with Mr Ashton and was adamant he had "no knowledge" of any decision to use police, the ADF, the AFP or private security.
"I also did not have the expertise to make such decisions," he wrote.
The top bureaucrat resigned from his position after his phone records revealed the time of his call, but denied all responsibility.
Premier Daniel Andrews said in his sworn statement he did not take this to be a decision about private security and therefore did not pass it on.
"Decisions of that kind are of an operational nature in which I do not play a role," he wrote.
Victoria's hotel quarantine program was established within 36 hours of a national cabinet meeting on March 27.
Outbreaks among security and hotel staff at Rydges and Stamford Plaza have been blamed for 99 per cent of Victoria's COVID-19 second wave.
The second wave resulted in more than 18,000 new infections and 750 deaths.
The hotel quarantine inquiry board is due to hand down its full report by December 21.
Australian Associated Press
