Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews faces fresh questions over claims from the state's former top cop that his office "set up" the deal to use private security guards in its botched hotel quarantine scheme.
Text correspondence between the then-Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton and Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw was shown at Victoria's hotel quarantine inquiry on Thursday.
The exchange revealed the Department of Premier and Cabinet may have played a role in the fateful decision to use private security guards.
In his written statement, Mr Ashton wasn't sure whose idea it was to use private security guards but said it was not his.
He suggests it was Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles who made the recommendation about 1.20pm on March 27, just minutes before his text message exchange with Mr Kershaw.
The premier has been reticent to comment on aspects of the ongoing inquiry, but has previously said there was no explicit offer for the ADF to guard the hotels.
Mr Andrews is scheduled to appear before the inquiry next Wednesday, although he will likely be questioned about the claim at his daily media briefing on Friday.
The inquiry has heard security guards caught COVID-19 from returned travellers in hotel quarantine, sparking the state's second wave of coronavirus.
"Mistakes have been made in relation to this program. The community's entitled to answers," Mr Andrews said in parliament on Thursday.
The explosive evidence comes as health authorities attempt to mop up a coronavirus cluster in southeast Melbourne described as a "super-spreading event".
As the state recorded eight more deaths and 28 new cases on Thursday, Victoria's deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng revealed five of the infections were linked to a community outbreak in Casey.
Three pop-up testing clinics have been set up in the area as authorities work with Monash Health, local council and community leaders.
The latest fatalities took the state's death toll to 745 and the national figure to 832.
Regional Victorians enjoyed their first day under eased COVID-19 rules on Thursday, while locked-down Melburnians adjust to a so-called "ring of steel" around the city.
Meanwhile, the state government also announced $26.7 million in extra funding for kindergartens, ahead of their reopening across Victoria on October 5.
