Victoria’s top public servant Chris Eccles, who came under fire at the state’s hotel quarantine inquiry, has resigned.
Mr Eccles, the Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, resigned after his phone records were handed to the hotels inquiry.
In a statement, he said that staying in his position would be a “significant distraction to the ongoing work of the Victorian public sector.”
READ MORE: Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos resigns.
Mr Eccles fronted the state’s hotel quarantine inquiry in September, and said neither he nor the Premier’s department made the decision to use private security in the program.
The inquiry heard that on March 27, the day the hotel quarantine program was set up, then chief Police Commissioner, Graham Ashton, texted Mr Eccles at 1.16pm and that the senior bureaucrat could not recall calling him back.
But in his resignation statement today, Mr Eccles revealed that phone records showed he called Mr Ashton for two minutes at 1.17pm that day.
More to come.
READ MORE: Jenny Mikakos: Treat Daniel Andrews’ COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine evidence with ‘caution.’
