November 28, 2021 • 48 mins
This major 7NEWS investigation examines the critical errors and cover-ups in the deepening Ruby Princess coronavirus crisis, to date responsible for seven deaths and 10 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Australia.
Featuring interviews with key players at the centre of the developing scandal and passengers aboard the fateful cruise, 7NEWS reveals damning new information in documents obtained from the highest echelons of government detailing the truth of what the boarding passengers of the Ruby Princess unwittingly walked into, and those who knew about it.
It was a cruise that should have been cancelled. When 2,700 holidaymakers boarded the Ruby Princess on March 8 for a round-tour of New Zealand, what they didn’t know was they were walking on to a floating petri dish that, hours before they’d stepped aboard, sick passengers from the previous tour had disembarked.
By the time the ship returned to Sydney in the early hours on March 19, the COVID-19 virus had spread rapidly through the ship. Yet all passengers were granted permission to come ashore and use any means of travel to return to their homes both in Australia and in many cases, overseas – no warnings of the dangers they faced, the peril on board, and the danger they now posed to the wider community.
7NEWS investigative reporter Denham Hitchcock presents this explosive investigation into how the Ruby Princess became a breeding ground for the largest cluster of COVID-19 in the country, now spread to every state and territory – and other parts of the world.
This special originally aired April 5, 2020.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Termed COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
People can't be brought in every night under the cover
of darkness.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The arrival of our guest that day was no different
to other travelers.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
We shouldn't have been allowed to dock anywhere.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Stakes are very very high.
Speaker 5 (00:17):
Restricting movement will stop the spread, so that two seven
hundred people disembarked.
Speaker 6 (00:23):
This is huge.
Speaker 7 (00:24):
This is a capital f for failure.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
A catastrophic situation on a global dale.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Ruby Princess was considered low risk for COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I've got it.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
There were no New South Wales health officials present.
Speaker 7 (00:38):
And absolutely inexcusable failure to do your job.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
We're a company and an industry that does the right thing.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
This is about controlling the spread there.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It should have been kept contained. They obviously knew what
we didn't.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Would have been lied to the ship followed to the
latter all of the four with healthcarence processes.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hell no, this.
Speaker 8 (01:03):
Document is the smoking gun. Very different kind of interview, anything.
Speaker 9 (01:10):
About anything going to your husband.
Speaker 10 (01:15):
Disaster.
Speaker 11 (01:16):
I can assure you now that all authorities are working together.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
The welfare of our crew is paramount.
Speaker 12 (01:22):
This is a cover up.
Speaker 7 (01:24):
Horrible wishes on anyone.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
It spreads really really quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
No apology, no explanation, The public needs no fact. I'd
like to know why responsible. This is a very very
serious situation is terrifying.
Speaker 8 (01:43):
Well, there she is, the Ruby Princess, a breeding ground
for the largest cluster of COVID nineteen cases in the
entire country. From here it spread out to every state
and territory tonight. How this virus was unlead, who knew
about it? And how would put every single one of
(02:04):
us in dagment.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
There's a distinct timeline of things that shouldn't have happened.
Crews shouldn't have happened. We shouldn't have been allowed to embark.
We shouldn't have been allowed to disembark, and we should
not have been allowed to leave the country. It should
have been kept contained.
Speaker 8 (02:31):
In good times, there's a good reason to put a
cruise on the Ruby Princess. It has all the attractions,
even a consulting Australian celebrity chef. The Ruby Princess left
no stone unturned, so we get the best precious ingredients
(02:52):
and then we do it justice. But these aren't the
best of times, they're the worst. The coronavirus pandemic is
sweeping the work, and one of the first wave of
victims is on the Diamond Princess, maued in Japan. Seven
(03:15):
hundred people test positive. There are multiple deaths. The Ruby
Princess is its sister ship. The owner and the captain
were well aware of the risk they faced, but stopping
the cruisers would cost the company millions, so the ships
sailed on early in March in a bustling Sydney harbor
(03:44):
full of cruise ships. The Ruby Princess returned from a
New Zealand round trip. In the shipping business, time is money,
and the Ruby Princess had one lot of passengers to
disembark and thousands more to board, so the ship could leave.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Again that night.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
The haste to leave would now set off a viral
time bomb. Eleven days later it would detonate. I'm driving
out now to meet a couple who booked and paid
for that trip on the Ruby Princess.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
They are now both stuck at.
Speaker 8 (04:24):
Home, both testing positive COVID nineteen, so I'm not exactly
sure how I'm going to talk to them.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
At this point.
Speaker 8 (04:34):
This is going to be a very different kind of
in it. Good morning, Hello, Bill, You in there somewhere.
Speaker 13 (04:51):
I'm here.
Speaker 14 (04:56):
On the bloody.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 14 (05:00):
It's a very fast time. We've gone off on a cruise, right.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
Uh, you've never heard my before.
Speaker 14 (05:08):
I got lucky to a good holiday.
Speaker 15 (05:13):
Wonder who we weren't game?
Speaker 14 (05:16):
They got something wrong. I've got a little saying of
Ruby Princher to come.
Speaker 13 (05:22):
Back and do what.
Speaker 16 (05:24):
Jake what Jake, come back to me. But we've never
been crowd comp in two weeks up in there in
and had a bed all day and getting it's just
a horrible, horrible, horrible the cost of pain that goes
with it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, funny our guests could disembark Ruby Princess because that
was the official health clearance process that existed at the time.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
On March eighth, the new arrivals were about to move
into the cabins of the passengers and disembarked just hours before.
Among them was Elissa McCafferty, who was traveling with five others,
including her elderly parents.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Mum's in a wheelchair, so it was really accessible for
her and she's always wanted to go to New Zealand.
She's always wanted a cruise, but she's always wanted to
go to New Zealand.
Speaker 8 (06:23):
What the newcomers weren't told is just how many of
the recently departed passengers had reported sick one hundred and
fifty eight in total, thirteen with high temperatures, a symptom
of COVID nineteen. But despite the warning signs, the Ruby
(06:46):
Princess would let on board two thousand, seven hundred unsuspecting souls.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
A fundamental position is that the health and safety of
our guests and our crew must always come first.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Only one of our groups sick has tested negative, and
our sixth member is currently in hospital down in Mongong.
He was admitted yesterday.
Speaker 8 (07:12):
Did anybody tell you that the previous cruise. Did they
tell you that there was any problems on board anyone
sick from that cruise?
Speaker 7 (07:20):
No?
Speaker 14 (07:20):
No, there was nobody stick. Everything was okay, everything was good.
Speaker 8 (07:24):
So people had asked the crew asked Ruby Princess, how
was the last cruise? Was there anyone sick on board?
And the answer was no, Everything is.
Speaker 11 (07:35):
Good for all the Princess cruise fans.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
We're a company and an industry that does the right thing.
Speaker 17 (07:43):
But I know will meet against sunny.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Season.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I think it was six six thirty maybe seven o'clock.
They made an announcement saying New South Wales Health has
given permission for this cruise to board and depart. So
for all our minds that many people faced forward, New
South Wales Health of New South Wales Health.
Speaker 8 (08:13):
Have cleared this boat to leave.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, and everybody cheered.
Speaker 18 (08:35):
From what we know about cruise ships, they are kind
of petri dishes for the spread of infectious diseases and
it's very, very hard to stop the spread of that
throughout that cruise ship. The thing about cruise ships is
that they're very close confined environment. In a normal community setting,
(08:59):
you don't really have close contact with three thousand other
people at the same time. But on a cruise ship
for a couple of weeks at least, in this confined
place with these other people. You know, thousands of people
on the ship, sharing bathrooms, sharing eating, common eating areas,
(09:23):
sharing entertainment areas. There are lots and lots of opportunities
for people to come in close contact with each other
or touch potentially infected surfaces. People go to the toilet,
flush the toilet, and that the virus gets aerosolized and
can land on surfaces or the next person who goes
(09:44):
into the toilet. It just seems like a cruise ship
is kind of a perfect place for a virus to spread.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You set off a glitter bomb at a party, You're
going to be finding glitter for years. That's what this
virus is.
Speaker 8 (10:03):
Days pass the ship travels from Sydney to New Zealand,
the fjord Land, Duneden, Akaroa, Wellington and Napier.
Speaker 11 (10:14):
I'm from Sydney in the UK.
Speaker 8 (10:17):
Over there out at sea, as the virus silently spreads,
the alarm bells are yet to read. But back in Sydney,
one person is getting seriously concerned. Ever since the Ruby
Princess left, Sarah Marshall, a senior executive at the New
South Wales Port Authority, has been trying to get Carnival
(10:39):
Australia to answer a very simple question. Did the master
of the vessel lie to them on March? Remember, on
March eighth, the Ruby Princess disembarked one load of passengers,
only to take on another. But what the master of
the vessel knew was no less than one hundred and
(11:00):
fifty eight of those passengers leaving the vessel were sick,
thirteen of them with a high temperature, a textbook symptom
of COVID nineteen. But as this explosive email reveals, that
information was kept from the port authority.
Speaker 19 (11:19):
Last Sunday, eighth of March, the Ruby Princess arrived into
port advising our vessel traffic services they had no ill
passengers or crew on board.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
In other words, the port authority fears it has been misled.
Speaker 19 (11:34):
It raised concerns about whether we can in general rely
on the declaration from.
Speaker 8 (11:38):
The master of the vessel. But the port authority, they
didn't stop there. They wrote to Carnival Australia, the owners
of the Ruby Princess, and they asked a very simple,
a very direct question, why did the master of the
vessel fail to declare the sick people he had on board.
Speaker 19 (11:57):
We are still to receive a response.
Speaker 8 (12:04):
Their question was unanswered, their fears ignored, and on board
the Ruby Princess, the fever was beginning to rage.
Speaker 14 (12:14):
There was one incidence. We were in the fear of
watching watching the show, and there was a seat between
me and this particular lady, and all of a sudden
held up this coffy real pig come from deep down.
Of course, this is not right anyway, I'm waiting on air,
(12:35):
and now they had more notes of it. But yeah,
there was a two incident, says with another one that
would bring our cabin boy. They've been off for two days.
When when I asked about it, they turned around sorr. Yeah, yeah,
it's got a sore stage to that.
Speaker 13 (12:52):
That that was about it.
Speaker 14 (12:54):
So yeah, not a very good experience.
Speaker 20 (12:57):
You see, you can't just trust a cappen to be
honest or dishonest.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
You have to have a second line of proving the fact.
Speaker 20 (13:07):
And what needed to happen here was the automatic and
immediate implementation of total testing for the three thousand or
so people on this floating petri dish to establish how
many people were six.
Speaker 8 (13:24):
By March fourteenth, the Ruby Princess had been six days
at sea when the New Zealand Prime Minister announced a
ban on cruise ships arriving on New Zealand shores. New
Zealand locks down its borders and the captain is running
out of options. He has at least thirteen patients on
board with symptoms of COVID nineteen, so he scraps the
(13:48):
itinery and he charts across directly for Sydney. The next day,
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces a similar ban for Australia.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Australian Government will also ban cruise ships from foreign ports
from arriving at Australian ports for initial thirty days and
that will go forward on a rolling basis.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
And steaming back to Sydney is a.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Viral time, boy, what were you told at that point?
Speaker 14 (14:20):
Australian Government? Once up, straight name the Australian Government, once up,
straight back home.
Speaker 8 (14:30):
If you're a captain of a ship and you're arriving
in Sydney, you've got twoy seven hundred people on board,
at least thirteen people seriously ill with a respiratory illness
that presents like COVID nineteen. Do you let those people
off the ship or do you quarantine the ship and
keep people inside with the virus.
Speaker 18 (14:49):
What we would do now is that we would isolate
those people and quarantine the ship.
Speaker 20 (15:08):
Cruise ships at a time when you've got a communicable
disease of floating petri dishes. And what's happened is we've allowed.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
This floating petri dish to descend on Australia's gateway.
Speaker 20 (15:22):
Sydney, a city of five million people and then disseminate
the Petri dish right across Australia to country towns and
other cities across our vast nation. Now look in a crisis.
I fully understand, having been Prime Minister, mistakes.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
Will always be made.
Speaker 20 (15:42):
But on this one, where you had a clear case
study as far as the Diamond Princess in Tokyo was concerned.
And secondly, only a small number of entry ports to control,
this is an inexcusable failure of public duty.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
Welcome a cruise passenger.
Speaker 18 (16:01):
I'm Rosie Jacobs and today we are on board the
Ruby Princess.
Speaker 21 (16:05):
We're going to take you for a tour around this magical.
Speaker 19 (16:08):
Ship and show you all the features she has to offer.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Hi everyone. A lot's been said recently about Ruby Princess.
I'd like to take a few moments to help you
know and understand the facts.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
They said they did everything according to the rules, they
let everyone know as much as they could, and that
they did their utmost for their passengers.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
As we now know some of the swabs from Ruby
Princess tested positive. This news was as disappointing as it
was unexpected.
Speaker 16 (16:59):
Said about anyone on board having a virus. I don't
you think that I did say was if you're feeling check,
did you got a temperature or you got a cop.
Speaker 14 (17:10):
Gartness save the doctor caring business ours.
Speaker 8 (17:20):
On March sixteenth, the Ruby Princess left New Zealand to
head back to Sydney. On board, passengers were already falling ill.
Information that wasn't immediately shared by the crew or the company.
Speaker 20 (17:34):
It should Australia just be outraged. Absolutely, this was avoidable.
We've now got something like five thousand coronavirus infections in
Australia so far, about ten percent of them come from
this single ship.
Speaker 8 (17:51):
Yeah, still unaware of the danger there. The two thousand,
seven hundred passengers make the most of their final days
at sea.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And you'd think there would be rumors, but no, no rumors.
A lot of alcohol consumed, but no rumors tequila killer thing.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
By the time that ship left New Zealand, there were
already thirteen passengers on board with COVID nineteen symptoms, and
those thirteen passengers had been advised to have nasal swabs
ready to go for when they got back to Australia,
so that ship knew that there were people on board
who were very ill and most likely with COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That is news to me and very sad because those
swaps could have been taken and chop it off, so
results could have been had If that was the case,
before we even got back to Sydney, we could have
known whether or not the ship should have been in
full quarantine.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
In the bridge deck, as he approaches Sydney, the captain
must realize his dilemma.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
He has two seven.
Speaker 8 (19:21):
Hundred people on board and they are all under his hair.
The question now for the ship should it be quarantined
or should the thousands of passengers be led loose in
the center of Sydney. So it's last morning in Sydney.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
It's about six thirty am. We'll be able to disembark
in about an hour fifteen. I couldn't sleep, so I
went up to the top deck and they're probably about
twenty of us up on the top deck watching us
coming to Sydney.
Speaker 11 (19:54):
As you can see behind me, we've got the Opera House,
and you can see behind the opera House the ship
that's been taking the firefighters from the Sydney bushfires.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That to be home because Sydney is still home for
me and I live in the UK. Sydney like coming
home is you know, it always makes me clean you up.
It does, can't help it.
Speaker 18 (20:24):
And Dad, this is mute.
Speaker 17 (20:27):
Oh Dunny boys, the pipes, the pipes are called from
glen to glen and down the mountainside. The summer is gone,
and all the roses for it's you with you must
go and I must buy by call me by.
Speaker 20 (20:49):
Australian lives hundreds, potentially thousands have been put at risk
because of the failure of mister Morrison and mister Dunton
to do that.
Speaker 17 (21:03):
In sunshine Ore in shadow. Oh doney boy, what doney boy?
I love you so and you suck for making you cry,
your master.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
I love you.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Remember.
Speaker 20 (21:20):
Mister Morrison and mister Dunton built their political careers around
the catch cry of we will stop the boat. Well,
on this occasion, they had one job, which.
Speaker 7 (21:30):
Was to stop one giant.
Speaker 20 (21:32):
Boat arriving at Sydney Harbor, and they fail.
Speaker 8 (21:37):
The ship isn't stopped, despite the deadly example of the
Diamond Princess in Japan, despite Prime Minister Morrison closing all
the ports, including this one, despite the passengers on.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
Board being clearly ill.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Multiple mistakes by multiple authorities and it put us all
at risk. Mistakes Carnival Australia admits to none of them.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Ruby Princess fully reported its health status using the official
federal and state maritime reporting systems.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
The ship followed to the latter all of the formal
health clearance processes that were active at that time.
Speaker 8 (22:15):
But this isn't the complete picture. Carnival Australia knew there
was something seriously wrong. I know this because when the
Ruby Princess arrived on this very dock in the dead
of night, there was an ambulance waiting right here to
take a seriously ill passenger to hospital.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
So who called it?
Speaker 14 (22:36):
In?
Speaker 8 (22:37):
A New South Wales government minister has told us the
call came from no less than the headquarters of Carnival Australia.
To quote the minister. They wanted an ambulance and they
wanted it quickly. Within hours, that passenger was in ICU.
Within days she was dead, killed by COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I knew there was an ambulance down there, We've seen it,
but I thought it was for a passenger that it
had a fall, because it's quite often people who have falls,
but I was not aware that it was at the
time that it was for a COVID patience.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
How does that make you feel at this point in time?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Right too, Ruby Princess was considered low risk for COVID
nineteen when she returned to Sydney last week.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
The Creuse company knew enough to call an ambulance for
a very sick woman on board who later died from
COVID nineteen, so they knew exactly what they had on board,
yet they did not say a word to any of
those passengers.
Speaker 20 (23:40):
It's grossly irresponsible and probably illegal for passengers not to
be informed that they were floating around on an infected
petri dish of COVID nineteen.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
The arrival of Oga that day was no different to
other travelers arriving in Australia by air from overseas.
Speaker 8 (24:07):
Was there anything about leaving the vessel that stood out
to you anything unusual?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Just how quickly they got us off.
Speaker 14 (24:14):
We were rushed up, like.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
Setting each other, jammed in.
Speaker 14 (24:23):
There was no keeping away from one or the other.
Pay there was no invocation plan keep saying that conditions,
but trained each other h nothing, nothing, nothing, much however.
Speaker 8 (24:32):
Did you see anyone from border Force?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Saw Borderforce ages surround with masks and gloves, but they
didn't interact. They basically just stood there and kat telling
people to move through. Nothing was being scanned. I couldn't
see anyone's temperatures being taken. They weren't asked to fill
(24:57):
in another health declaration.
Speaker 16 (24:59):
There was no tre trashbar so checking up anything.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Our passports won't even checked getting off the ship, it
was get us out, get us off and away and out.
Speaker 7 (25:15):
At a minimum, we should.
Speaker 20 (25:17):
Have applied mandatory testing for all three thousand plus people
on board. That's the only way you'll know the truth,
rather than saying, oh, you go catch a bus up
to Newcastle, catch.
Speaker 7 (25:28):
The plane to Brithee, give your mom and.
Speaker 20 (25:30):
Dad a kiss and a cuddle when you get home,
and bobs your uncle.
Speaker 8 (25:33):
Elissa, her mother and father, got a high car to
Sydney Airport, went to the Quantus Lounge, had a drink
at the bar before boarding a packed light to London,
where they caught a cab home. All three of them
were infected and contagious.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
As sensible humans, we don't want to infect people.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
We don't want to cause harm or hurt other people.
Being told that we could try all meant okay, we
can travel. The government says we can travel. It's safe
to travel, but it obviously wasn't.
Speaker 8 (26:07):
Two thousand, seven hundred passengers in a matter of minutes
dumped in the center of Sydney. They got picked up
in cars they called cabs, buses, trains, and then came
the passenger jets as they made their way home to
friends and family, not just in New South Wales, but
every state and territory and overseas New Zealand, Singapore, the
(26:33):
United States, England, Sea in Spain.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
When I first got back to London on the Friday,
I just felt I felt crap because I'd been on
flights for twenty four hours. But then come Friday night
the cost started getting really bad, and then come Saturday
morning it was just like, yeah, this isn't right. Something
(27:02):
I've got it.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Still to come.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
Explain to me how your resignation would not be on
the desk of the Premier tomorrow morning, docking for cover,
take a question for you didn't answer the question from
the start. I think I know more than you think
I know.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Hello, I'm still a president of Carnival Australia. In recent weeks,
as COVID nineteen started to spread to our north, we
began bringing our Australian best ships back to Australia so
that thousands of passengers could get safely back home. It
was an orderly process that worked.
Speaker 13 (27:46):
I have how many pecks that die?
Speaker 14 (27:53):
That's me, not their mind as well. Star check. If
you've got a beat looking like the pain that goes
with it, you have pay ideas good. We'll be breathing
camping your rising.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
How bad is it?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I wish it on anyone?
Speaker 13 (28:27):
Bill?
Speaker 8 (28:27):
Are you worried about your wife?
Speaker 14 (28:30):
Of course I am.
Speaker 8 (28:32):
You said that she's too ill to come to the window.
How how bad is she? You must be incredibly concerned.
Speaker 22 (28:40):
Hi am that get the whole team, the man to
pick your two years see the best woman in this world.
Speaker 13 (28:52):
I am a very very lucky man to have lady
like I am for somebody happen to.
Speaker 14 (29:00):
Writers are fair.
Speaker 20 (29:02):
The way its tentacles have spread right across the country
reaches into the lives of just ordinary people friends of
our A lady was on this ship, didn't know she
had the virus. Land in Sydney, no instructions know nothing,
flew back to Brisbane and to her horror, infected other
(29:24):
members of her family, including her husband, who I'm advised
is now in hospital.
Speaker 22 (29:32):
It's amount of for ten percent of KVID infections in Australia.
Speaker 14 (29:37):
Well because Ladis Burro, Jiclin and Brad.
Speaker 23 (29:40):
Has good morning everybody, thank you for Timilong.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
When above and beyond federal government polish.
Speaker 12 (29:46):
My question is to the Prime Minister who is responsible
for allowing passengers to disembark the Ruby Princess cruise ship.
Many of them are now presenting their own horrors symptoms.
Speaker 20 (29:58):
You see what happens off on the the public politics
is that the people played.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
There were no New South Wales Health officials present.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
It was him, it was her, it was them.
Speaker 23 (30:10):
New South Wales Health has stated that it undertook a
full assessment at the Ruby Princess and allowed the passengers
to disembark.
Speaker 24 (30:16):
New South Wales Health responding to the Ruby Princess and
the status you are free to disembark tomorrow.
Speaker 8 (30:23):
And then there's this a damning document from the Federal
Department of Agriculture, the people responsible for Australia's biosecurity. It
reveals the Ruby Princess declared it had one hundred and
twenty eight people fall ill on the cruise to New Zealand.
Twenty four of those had a temperature of well over
thirty eight degrees, Six of them had headaches, muscle eggs, vomiting.
(30:48):
This information was passed from the ship to the New
South Wales Department of Health prior to her docking in
Circular Key on March nineteenth. Oko happy to take questions
in relation in relation to the Ruby Princess. I know
the exact figures that your department was given in relation
(31:08):
to the sick people that were on board that boat,
more than one hundred people and many of them suffering
symptoms of COVID nineteen twenty seven hundred passengers were dumped
into the middle of Sydney, and we know what happened
after that. Explain to me how your resignation would not
be on the desk of the Premier tomorrow morning.
Speaker 23 (31:27):
Can I just say that the experts who made the issue,
who made the decision were the best in the world.
Speaker 8 (31:35):
In your department or on the boat to help.
Speaker 23 (31:38):
No, No, I'll take you through it, because it sounds
like you don't actually know how it works.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I take it through.
Speaker 8 (31:44):
I think I know more than you think on.
Speaker 23 (31:46):
A no no, I'm all right. So the decision that
they took was a decision that was made by medical
professionals of the highest calidor, and from that advice we
can to you. We don't make the decisions. I saw
somewhere that someone said I made the decision on the
Ruby Princess. I didn't know anything about the Ruby Princess.
(32:07):
I was dealing with all the other issues that were
obviously being dealt with. I had no knowledge until the
day after all, the day after that when I was
advised that there.
Speaker 8 (32:15):
Were I think, Minister, the Diamond Princess was a disaster,
but it didn't travel beyond the Diamond Princess. Take a
question for you didn't answer the question from the start
that I'm asking you a question or follow up question
you want to answer that I want to answer.
Speaker 23 (32:28):
Okay, Sorry, it's doctor chant, because there's a level of
enthusiasm here.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
As the Minister indicate it. A panel of public health
doctors do the risk assessment on the ship, and that
is a process. Obviously, if there are learnings and insights
that we will gather, those will be reflected the actions
of New South Wales Health on that day and the
advice of the Public Health Panel was based on the
(32:55):
assessment of that information presented to them. They concluded it
was a low risk, took the action and tested the results.
Speaker 23 (33:02):
Thank you everybody, and I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Okay, thank you, thank you the minister.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
A politician's answer is what I'm hearing. You can't seriously
say that passages that were let off the Ruby Princess,
that went home and infected family members that stayed at
home for seven days and went to hospital and died
a few days later, those.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Lives might have been saved.
Speaker 8 (33:25):
You can't seriously back the decision of his department on that.
Speaker 24 (33:37):
To look out for your overall health and well being.
We have enhanced our pre boarding and on board health protocols,
our advanced sanitation response protocols, servers our foundational basis and
comprehensive practice, and they can keep our ships healthy and clean.
Speaker 8 (34:06):
Dez and Bev Williams married for twenty three years. On
March eight they bordered the Ruby Princess for a family holiday.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
They've been on numerous cruisers and they just saying that
we're going on a cruise.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
We're going on a cruise, so we don't think much
of They're having a great time.
Speaker 7 (34:23):
So every night they went to dinner.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I think they basically went to the same place with
dinner every night, got the same waiter every night. One
night they turned up waiter's farm gone or where's the waiter?
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Oh, he's sick.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
And it was there after that he was gone. They
wouldn't say anyth where he was or what was wrong.
So I suspect that he was from one of them,
oh lord into It was probably the week after they
(34:59):
got back.
Speaker 25 (34:59):
She just that death has had to be a cold
or something. May not have been feeling a hundred percent,
but still was okay. His temperature was going up, and
then the Saturday, I think he had a high temperature starting.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
To have GEPPI be breathing as well. Then, so they're like, well,
we need to do something, until they went to the
local testing station in Towomba. It was only then once
he got into the hospital and tested him and he
found out he had it. The next day give him
austraight away, put in the COVID board and Mum at
that state, still.
Speaker 26 (35:31):
Being in isolation at home, still trying to see you.
Speaker 9 (35:33):
Out of her fourteen days, let's told you just have
to stay at home. You can't come and see him.
So helping helpless, feeling helpless.
Speaker 26 (35:46):
Husband's basically good, got a disease and she can't go
and see him. So you know, I basically had to
go and take up his phone and his eye paid
for him, so shecret at least have some communication with him.
Speaker 7 (35:59):
And that's a big risk for us going to the
hospital and.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Into that area. Then on the Tuesday, Tuesday just gone,
his oxygen level dropped again and they put him on
back on oxygen. And then just out of the blue
that night, the doctor said, there's a dying.
Speaker 9 (36:25):
There is dying. You need to come and see him.
Speaker 26 (36:29):
So she can't can get down a taxi, I can't
pick her up, can't be really so she had to
drive the self.
Speaker 9 (36:39):
Well, come on to see you going to see your
husband the last time.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
See when I saw him ten o'clock.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
On the Tuesday night.
Speaker 7 (36:47):
It was Thursday morning to thirty am that he died.
So bet out of twenty four hours he was apparently
talking to the nurses. Theirs were talking to the nurses every.
Speaker 26 (36:59):
Half hour and they can and checked him and numb.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
The next time the nurse went back, he was dead.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Mhmm m.
Speaker 7 (37:15):
And then so you.
Speaker 9 (37:16):
Have to go up and see the body anyway, Sure.
Speaker 8 (37:23):
If there turns out there's decisions that have been made
by various departments, by this cruise company that have put
your parents in peril. What have those decisions done to
your family?
Speaker 7 (37:39):
Well, they.
Speaker 9 (37:44):
They've decimated our family really better six year old and
a four year old they used to love. See him there,
say now there the grandfather taken away. Yeah, way, stepfather's
taken away as well. We we got on really well,
and my mother loved him. The whole body thing.
Speaker 7 (38:06):
That's just decimated of the family.
Speaker 14 (38:07):
And it ye know, and as we talk now it
has the bard end of time.
Speaker 7 (38:13):
It's faster and.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
Then the clinging. Now is Mom's supposed to get to
the afternoon.
Speaker 8 (38:22):
I'm sorry sorry for you and the family.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
I really am, the whole.
Speaker 9 (38:28):
Whole night, whole d.
Speaker 15 (38:38):
Yeah, because she's swing, no symptoms, but because there just
white and see if somebody death end is coming, some.
Speaker 9 (38:54):
Dressed my earrings.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Right now she's preparing the self or the end.
Speaker 7 (39:03):
Essentially, we can't.
Speaker 9 (39:06):
Go over there, or we can go over there and
see you from a distance. But we can't hugging, we
can't derailing, we can't go and tight and help us.
It's just lonely. Hopefully I'm dying.
Speaker 8 (39:23):
Spare of thought tonight for the crew on board the
Ruby Princess, a ship without a port, passengers without a destination.
They've been drifting up and down the Sydney coast with
a virus, quite literally, jumping from room to room. The
only way they get off is in an ambulance in
the dead of night in boat ramps like this. There's
(39:52):
a forgotten bunch of people in all this, and that
is the crew that is still on board that ship.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah, I'm in touch with a few of them. Can
I read you something that one of them sent me?
Speaker 8 (40:07):
Please?
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I can't say who sent it because they're basically gagged.
So what he said is, try to fight our corner,
our corner a little if you can. The only thing
that we're upset about is the negative press.
Speaker 8 (40:27):
There's eleven hundred crew on board that ship.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
Do you know how many of them are ill?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
I don't know how many are sick from what I've
been told, all but about two hundred are in isolation
and that other two hundred are basically keeping everything running,
keeping everyone fed, and you know, working their asses off
(40:57):
to try and keep everything just going.
Speaker 21 (41:03):
Goomsaclas the foot one fall, they drift about looking conversing.
Speaker 8 (41:13):
On the nineteenth of March, on a beautiful Sydney day,
after dropping its passages, the Ruby Princess prepared to set sail.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
On Dick.
Speaker 8 (41:33):
There was an emotional ceremony.
Speaker 21 (41:35):
Faith Shovi made approval Surebey in honor of her beauty,
and the line overstrewal.
Speaker 8 (41:49):
The crew were happy and relieved to be leaving.
Speaker 21 (41:53):
She brought your thumb and she came out and brob
me lad.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
She drel.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
We sailed away from Sydney on the nineteenth believing we
were virus free.
Speaker 8 (42:07):
As these secret texts from those now trapped on board reveal, we.
Speaker 19 (42:11):
Had a deck party because we had been cleared by
New South Wales help.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
The party lasted one day.
Speaker 24 (42:23):
We've been locked down ever since.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
On the Ruby. There's like three doctors and three nurses
who are now working around the clock trying to look
after you know, over eleven hundred people, twelve hundred people
that thinks Maine.
Speaker 8 (42:43):
Ruby Princess Ruby Princess Ruby, Princess, this is helicopter uniform
Alpha Zulu.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
How is your status on board?
Speaker 27 (42:51):
Over many we get back to your shortcu you can
you just tell me? I mean, which kind of organization.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Do you belong?
Speaker 27 (43:05):
Are you from the new software ahead?
Speaker 8 (43:09):
We are not New South Wales Health no, but we
are concerned about the people you have on board checking
the sage and everything is okay.
Speaker 6 (43:16):
And for a general health check.
Speaker 16 (43:18):
Over in uniform Alfa Zulu will be Princess.
Speaker 10 (43:23):
So only our health reports have been already submitted and
we're dealing already with the New South Wales the Health
of Department.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
That's no need for any further reports.
Speaker 6 (43:35):
Can I ask do you have anyone else on board
who is ill?
Speaker 13 (43:39):
Over?
Speaker 10 (43:41):
So I repeat, all relevant information have been already submitted.
Speaker 16 (43:46):
To relevant as the parstman.
Speaker 10 (43:48):
I am sure there is no need at this stage
for any other report.
Speaker 6 (43:55):
Captain your personal opinion?
Speaker 8 (43:57):
Are you happy with the responses you've had from your
South Wales Health and Australian authorities over okay?
Speaker 10 (44:04):
All we mean again there is no need for any
obinion or any report at this stage. All a lot
of oun information regarding our opinion being already pass to
the authorities assured. Thank you much, sir.
Speaker 27 (44:17):
I believe this is the end of the conversation.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
We are a hard working bunch from fifty one nations
that day in and day out spend our lives fulfilling
the dreams of our guests, and now we're treated like this.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They're humans. Let them off, don't keep them stranded off
the coast. Sorry, pieces be awful little. The damage has
been done. Let them off.
Speaker 18 (45:05):
This virus is different, and it's sort of different to
anything we've seen before, and we don't have any immunity
to it.
Speaker 7 (45:15):
There has to be a seminal learning for the next
virus or the next related border related security incident.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
If my traveling home infected someone else and they infected
someone else, and if I've helped perpetuate this horrible virus,
that's something I'm going to have to live with.
Speaker 20 (45:46):
Mister tough Guy, Captain tough Guy, Peter Dutt how to
make his reputation through being the meanest, hungriest minister in
the government. Yet it's on his watch that this had
to happen through his adies.
Speaker 13 (46:04):
Why we're told, why weren't we taken care of him?
What can you do now, what is going to happen.
Speaker 14 (46:16):
Is a company going to take responsibility.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
But after the blame game, we need to learn.
Speaker 8 (46:26):
Australia had an opportunity to slow the spread of COVID nineteen.
It's more than an opportunity, really, it was a duty
to protect all of us. A company failed, agencies failed,
ministers failed, contagion spread and lives were lost. The first
step is to admit the mistakes.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
The second make sure they never happen again.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
M
Termed COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
People can't be brought in every night under the cover
of darkness.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The arrival of our guest that day was no different
to other travelers.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
We shouldn't have been allowed to dock anywhere.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Stakes are very very high.
Speaker 5 (00:17):
Restricting movement will stop the spread, so that two seven
hundred people disembarked.
Speaker 6 (00:23):
This is huge.
Speaker 7 (00:24):
This is a capital f for failure.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
A catastrophic situation on a global dale.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Ruby Princess was considered low risk for COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I've got it.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
There were no New South Wales health officials present.
Speaker 7 (00:38):
And absolutely inexcusable failure to do your job.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
We're a company and an industry that does the right thing.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
This is about controlling the spread there.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It should have been kept contained. They obviously knew what
we didn't.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Would have been lied to the ship followed to the
latter all of the four with healthcarence processes.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Hell no, this.
Speaker 8 (01:03):
Document is the smoking gun. Very different kind of interview, anything.
Speaker 9 (01:10):
About anything going to your husband.
Speaker 10 (01:15):
Disaster.
Speaker 11 (01:16):
I can assure you now that all authorities are working together.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
The welfare of our crew is paramount.
Speaker 12 (01:22):
This is a cover up.
Speaker 7 (01:24):
Horrible wishes on anyone.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
It spreads really really quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
No apology, no explanation, The public needs no fact. I'd
like to know why responsible. This is a very very
serious situation is terrifying.
Speaker 8 (01:43):
Well, there she is, the Ruby Princess, a breeding ground
for the largest cluster of COVID nineteen cases in the
entire country. From here it spread out to every state
and territory tonight. How this virus was unlead, who knew
about it? And how would put every single one of
(02:04):
us in dagment.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
There's a distinct timeline of things that shouldn't have happened.
Crews shouldn't have happened. We shouldn't have been allowed to embark.
We shouldn't have been allowed to disembark, and we should
not have been allowed to leave the country. It should
have been kept contained.
Speaker 8 (02:31):
In good times, there's a good reason to put a
cruise on the Ruby Princess. It has all the attractions,
even a consulting Australian celebrity chef. The Ruby Princess left
no stone unturned, so we get the best precious ingredients
(02:52):
and then we do it justice. But these aren't the
best of times, they're the worst. The coronavirus pandemic is
sweeping the work, and one of the first wave of
victims is on the Diamond Princess, maued in Japan. Seven
(03:15):
hundred people test positive. There are multiple deaths. The Ruby
Princess is its sister ship. The owner and the captain
were well aware of the risk they faced, but stopping
the cruisers would cost the company millions, so the ships
sailed on early in March in a bustling Sydney harbor
(03:44):
full of cruise ships. The Ruby Princess returned from a
New Zealand round trip. In the shipping business, time is money,
and the Ruby Princess had one lot of passengers to
disembark and thousands more to board, so the ship could leave.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Again that night.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
The haste to leave would now set off a viral
time bomb. Eleven days later it would detonate. I'm driving
out now to meet a couple who booked and paid
for that trip on the Ruby Princess.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
They are now both stuck at.
Speaker 8 (04:24):
Home, both testing positive COVID nineteen, so I'm not exactly
sure how I'm going to talk to them.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
At this point.
Speaker 8 (04:34):
This is going to be a very different kind of
in it. Good morning, Hello, Bill, You in there somewhere.
Speaker 13 (04:51):
I'm here.
Speaker 14 (04:56):
On the bloody.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 14 (05:00):
It's a very fast time. We've gone off on a cruise, right.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
Uh, you've never heard my before.
Speaker 14 (05:08):
I got lucky to a good holiday.
Speaker 15 (05:13):
Wonder who we weren't game?
Speaker 14 (05:16):
They got something wrong. I've got a little saying of
Ruby Princher to come.
Speaker 13 (05:22):
Back and do what.
Speaker 16 (05:24):
Jake what Jake, come back to me. But we've never
been crowd comp in two weeks up in there in
and had a bed all day and getting it's just
a horrible, horrible, horrible the cost of pain that goes
with it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, funny our guests could disembark Ruby Princess because that
was the official health clearance process that existed at the time.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
On March eighth, the new arrivals were about to move
into the cabins of the passengers and disembarked just hours before.
Among them was Elissa McCafferty, who was traveling with five others,
including her elderly parents.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Mum's in a wheelchair, so it was really accessible for
her and she's always wanted to go to New Zealand.
She's always wanted a cruise, but she's always wanted to
go to New Zealand.
Speaker 8 (06:23):
What the newcomers weren't told is just how many of
the recently departed passengers had reported sick one hundred and
fifty eight in total, thirteen with high temperatures, a symptom
of COVID nineteen. But despite the warning signs, the Ruby
(06:46):
Princess would let on board two thousand, seven hundred unsuspecting souls.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
A fundamental position is that the health and safety of
our guests and our crew must always come first.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Only one of our groups sick has tested negative, and
our sixth member is currently in hospital down in Mongong.
He was admitted yesterday.
Speaker 8 (07:12):
Did anybody tell you that the previous cruise. Did they
tell you that there was any problems on board anyone
sick from that cruise?
Speaker 7 (07:20):
No?
Speaker 14 (07:20):
No, there was nobody stick. Everything was okay, everything was good.
Speaker 8 (07:24):
So people had asked the crew asked Ruby Princess, how
was the last cruise? Was there anyone sick on board?
And the answer was no, Everything is.
Speaker 11 (07:35):
Good for all the Princess cruise fans.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
We're a company and an industry that does the right thing.
Speaker 17 (07:43):
But I know will meet against sunny.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Season.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I think it was six six thirty maybe seven o'clock.
They made an announcement saying New South Wales Health has
given permission for this cruise to board and depart. So
for all our minds that many people faced forward, New
South Wales Health of New South Wales Health.
Speaker 8 (08:13):
Have cleared this boat to leave.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, and everybody cheered.
Speaker 18 (08:35):
From what we know about cruise ships, they are kind
of petri dishes for the spread of infectious diseases and
it's very, very hard to stop the spread of that
throughout that cruise ship. The thing about cruise ships is
that they're very close confined environment. In a normal community setting,
(08:59):
you don't really have close contact with three thousand other
people at the same time. But on a cruise ship
for a couple of weeks at least, in this confined
place with these other people. You know, thousands of people
on the ship, sharing bathrooms, sharing eating, common eating areas,
(09:23):
sharing entertainment areas. There are lots and lots of opportunities
for people to come in close contact with each other
or touch potentially infected surfaces. People go to the toilet,
flush the toilet, and that the virus gets aerosolized and
can land on surfaces or the next person who goes
(09:44):
into the toilet. It just seems like a cruise ship
is kind of a perfect place for a virus to spread.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
You set off a glitter bomb at a party, You're
going to be finding glitter for years. That's what this
virus is.
Speaker 8 (10:03):
Days pass the ship travels from Sydney to New Zealand,
the fjord Land, Duneden, Akaroa, Wellington and Napier.
Speaker 11 (10:14):
I'm from Sydney in the UK.
Speaker 8 (10:17):
Over there out at sea, as the virus silently spreads,
the alarm bells are yet to read. But back in Sydney,
one person is getting seriously concerned. Ever since the Ruby
Princess left, Sarah Marshall, a senior executive at the New
South Wales Port Authority, has been trying to get Carnival
(10:39):
Australia to answer a very simple question. Did the master
of the vessel lie to them on March? Remember, on
March eighth, the Ruby Princess disembarked one load of passengers,
only to take on another. But what the master of
the vessel knew was no less than one hundred and
(11:00):
fifty eight of those passengers leaving the vessel were sick,
thirteen of them with a high temperature, a textbook symptom
of COVID nineteen. But as this explosive email reveals, that
information was kept from the port authority.
Speaker 19 (11:19):
Last Sunday, eighth of March, the Ruby Princess arrived into
port advising our vessel traffic services they had no ill
passengers or crew on board.
Speaker 8 (11:30):
In other words, the port authority fears it has been misled.
Speaker 19 (11:34):
It raised concerns about whether we can in general rely
on the declaration from.
Speaker 8 (11:38):
The master of the vessel. But the port authority, they
didn't stop there. They wrote to Carnival Australia, the owners
of the Ruby Princess, and they asked a very simple,
a very direct question, why did the master of the
vessel fail to declare the sick people he had on board.
Speaker 19 (11:57):
We are still to receive a response.
Speaker 8 (12:04):
Their question was unanswered, their fears ignored, and on board
the Ruby Princess, the fever was beginning to rage.
Speaker 14 (12:14):
There was one incidence. We were in the fear of
watching watching the show, and there was a seat between
me and this particular lady, and all of a sudden
held up this coffy real pig come from deep down.
Of course, this is not right anyway, I'm waiting on air,
(12:35):
and now they had more notes of it. But yeah,
there was a two incident, says with another one that
would bring our cabin boy. They've been off for two days.
When when I asked about it, they turned around sorr. Yeah, yeah,
it's got a sore stage to that.
Speaker 13 (12:52):
That that was about it.
Speaker 14 (12:54):
So yeah, not a very good experience.
Speaker 20 (12:57):
You see, you can't just trust a cappen to be
honest or dishonest.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
You have to have a second line of proving the fact.
Speaker 20 (13:07):
And what needed to happen here was the automatic and
immediate implementation of total testing for the three thousand or
so people on this floating petri dish to establish how
many people were six.
Speaker 8 (13:24):
By March fourteenth, the Ruby Princess had been six days
at sea when the New Zealand Prime Minister announced a
ban on cruise ships arriving on New Zealand shores. New
Zealand locks down its borders and the captain is running
out of options. He has at least thirteen patients on
board with symptoms of COVID nineteen, so he scraps the
(13:48):
itinery and he charts across directly for Sydney. The next day,
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces a similar ban for Australia.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Australian Government will also ban cruise ships from foreign ports
from arriving at Australian ports for initial thirty days and
that will go forward on a rolling basis.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
And steaming back to Sydney is a.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
Viral time, boy, what were you told at that point?
Speaker 14 (14:20):
Australian Government? Once up, straight name the Australian Government, once up,
straight back home.
Speaker 8 (14:30):
If you're a captain of a ship and you're arriving
in Sydney, you've got twoy seven hundred people on board,
at least thirteen people seriously ill with a respiratory illness
that presents like COVID nineteen. Do you let those people
off the ship or do you quarantine the ship and
keep people inside with the virus.
Speaker 18 (14:49):
What we would do now is that we would isolate
those people and quarantine the ship.
Speaker 20 (15:08):
Cruise ships at a time when you've got a communicable
disease of floating petri dishes. And what's happened is we've allowed.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
This floating petri dish to descend on Australia's gateway.
Speaker 20 (15:22):
Sydney, a city of five million people and then disseminate
the Petri dish right across Australia to country towns and
other cities across our vast nation. Now look in a crisis.
I fully understand, having been Prime Minister, mistakes.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
Will always be made.
Speaker 20 (15:42):
But on this one, where you had a clear case
study as far as the Diamond Princess in Tokyo was concerned.
And secondly, only a small number of entry ports to control,
this is an inexcusable failure of public duty.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
Welcome a cruise passenger.
Speaker 18 (16:01):
I'm Rosie Jacobs and today we are on board the
Ruby Princess.
Speaker 21 (16:05):
We're going to take you for a tour around this magical.
Speaker 19 (16:08):
Ship and show you all the features she has to offer.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Hi everyone. A lot's been said recently about Ruby Princess.
I'd like to take a few moments to help you
know and understand the facts.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
They said they did everything according to the rules, they
let everyone know as much as they could, and that
they did their utmost for their passengers.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
As we now know some of the swabs from Ruby
Princess tested positive. This news was as disappointing as it
was unexpected.
Speaker 16 (16:59):
Said about anyone on board having a virus. I don't
you think that I did say was if you're feeling check,
did you got a temperature or you got a cop.
Speaker 14 (17:10):
Gartness save the doctor caring business ours.
Speaker 8 (17:20):
On March sixteenth, the Ruby Princess left New Zealand to
head back to Sydney. On board, passengers were already falling ill.
Information that wasn't immediately shared by the crew or the company.
Speaker 20 (17:34):
It should Australia just be outraged. Absolutely, this was avoidable.
We've now got something like five thousand coronavirus infections in
Australia so far, about ten percent of them come from
this single ship.
Speaker 8 (17:51):
Yeah, still unaware of the danger there. The two thousand,
seven hundred passengers make the most of their final days
at sea.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And you'd think there would be rumors, but no, no rumors.
A lot of alcohol consumed, but no rumors tequila killer thing.
Speaker 8 (18:22):
By the time that ship left New Zealand, there were
already thirteen passengers on board with COVID nineteen symptoms, and
those thirteen passengers had been advised to have nasal swabs
ready to go for when they got back to Australia,
so that ship knew that there were people on board
who were very ill and most likely with COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That is news to me and very sad because those
swaps could have been taken and chop it off, so
results could have been had If that was the case,
before we even got back to Sydney, we could have
known whether or not the ship should have been in
full quarantine.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
In the bridge deck, as he approaches Sydney, the captain
must realize his dilemma.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
He has two seven.
Speaker 8 (19:21):
Hundred people on board and they are all under his hair.
The question now for the ship should it be quarantined
or should the thousands of passengers be led loose in
the center of Sydney. So it's last morning in Sydney.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
It's about six thirty am. We'll be able to disembark
in about an hour fifteen. I couldn't sleep, so I
went up to the top deck and they're probably about
twenty of us up on the top deck watching us
coming to Sydney.
Speaker 11 (19:54):
As you can see behind me, we've got the Opera House,
and you can see behind the opera House the ship
that's been taking the firefighters from the Sydney bushfires.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
That to be home because Sydney is still home for
me and I live in the UK. Sydney like coming
home is you know, it always makes me clean you up.
It does, can't help it.
Speaker 18 (20:24):
And Dad, this is mute.
Speaker 17 (20:27):
Oh Dunny boys, the pipes, the pipes are called from
glen to glen and down the mountainside. The summer is gone,
and all the roses for it's you with you must
go and I must buy by call me by.
Speaker 20 (20:49):
Australian lives hundreds, potentially thousands have been put at risk
because of the failure of mister Morrison and mister Dunton
to do that.
Speaker 17 (21:03):
In sunshine Ore in shadow. Oh doney boy, what doney boy?
I love you so and you suck for making you cry,
your master.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
I love you.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Remember.
Speaker 20 (21:20):
Mister Morrison and mister Dunton built their political careers around
the catch cry of we will stop the boat. Well,
on this occasion, they had one job, which.
Speaker 7 (21:30):
Was to stop one giant.
Speaker 20 (21:32):
Boat arriving at Sydney Harbor, and they fail.
Speaker 8 (21:37):
The ship isn't stopped, despite the deadly example of the
Diamond Princess in Japan, despite Prime Minister Morrison closing all
the ports, including this one, despite the passengers on.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
Board being clearly ill.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Multiple mistakes by multiple authorities and it put us all
at risk. Mistakes Carnival Australia admits to none of them.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Ruby Princess fully reported its health status using the official
federal and state maritime reporting systems.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
The ship followed to the latter all of the formal
health clearance processes that were active at that time.
Speaker 8 (22:15):
But this isn't the complete picture. Carnival Australia knew there
was something seriously wrong. I know this because when the
Ruby Princess arrived on this very dock in the dead
of night, there was an ambulance waiting right here to
take a seriously ill passenger to hospital.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
So who called it?
Speaker 14 (22:36):
In?
Speaker 8 (22:37):
A New South Wales government minister has told us the
call came from no less than the headquarters of Carnival Australia.
To quote the minister. They wanted an ambulance and they
wanted it quickly. Within hours, that passenger was in ICU.
Within days she was dead, killed by COVID nineteen.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I knew there was an ambulance down there, We've seen it,
but I thought it was for a passenger that it
had a fall, because it's quite often people who have falls,
but I was not aware that it was at the
time that it was for a COVID patience.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
How does that make you feel at this point in time?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Right too, Ruby Princess was considered low risk for COVID
nineteen when she returned to Sydney last week.
Speaker 8 (23:26):
The Creuse company knew enough to call an ambulance for
a very sick woman on board who later died from
COVID nineteen, so they knew exactly what they had on board,
yet they did not say a word to any of
those passengers.
Speaker 20 (23:40):
It's grossly irresponsible and probably illegal for passengers not to
be informed that they were floating around on an infected
petri dish of COVID nineteen.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
The arrival of Oga that day was no different to
other travelers arriving in Australia by air from overseas.
Speaker 8 (24:07):
Was there anything about leaving the vessel that stood out
to you anything unusual?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Just how quickly they got us off.
Speaker 14 (24:14):
We were rushed up, like.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
Setting each other, jammed in.
Speaker 14 (24:23):
There was no keeping away from one or the other.
Pay there was no invocation plan keep saying that conditions,
but trained each other h nothing, nothing, nothing, much however.
Speaker 8 (24:32):
Did you see anyone from border Force?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Saw Borderforce ages surround with masks and gloves, but they
didn't interact. They basically just stood there and kat telling
people to move through. Nothing was being scanned. I couldn't
see anyone's temperatures being taken. They weren't asked to fill
(24:57):
in another health declaration.
Speaker 16 (24:59):
There was no tre trashbar so checking up anything.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Our passports won't even checked getting off the ship, it
was get us out, get us off and away and out.
Speaker 7 (25:15):
At a minimum, we should.
Speaker 20 (25:17):
Have applied mandatory testing for all three thousand plus people
on board. That's the only way you'll know the truth,
rather than saying, oh, you go catch a bus up
to Newcastle, catch.
Speaker 7 (25:28):
The plane to Brithee, give your mom and.
Speaker 20 (25:30):
Dad a kiss and a cuddle when you get home,
and bobs your uncle.
Speaker 8 (25:33):
Elissa, her mother and father, got a high car to
Sydney Airport, went to the Quantus Lounge, had a drink
at the bar before boarding a packed light to London,
where they caught a cab home. All three of them
were infected and contagious.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
As sensible humans, we don't want to infect people.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
We don't want to cause harm or hurt other people.
Being told that we could try all meant okay, we
can travel. The government says we can travel. It's safe
to travel, but it obviously wasn't.
Speaker 8 (26:07):
Two thousand, seven hundred passengers in a matter of minutes
dumped in the center of Sydney. They got picked up
in cars they called cabs, buses, trains, and then came
the passenger jets as they made their way home to
friends and family, not just in New South Wales, but
every state and territory and overseas New Zealand, Singapore, the
(26:33):
United States, England, Sea in Spain.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
When I first got back to London on the Friday,
I just felt I felt crap because I'd been on
flights for twenty four hours. But then come Friday night
the cost started getting really bad, and then come Saturday
morning it was just like, yeah, this isn't right. Something
(27:02):
I've got it.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Still to come.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
Explain to me how your resignation would not be on
the desk of the Premier tomorrow morning, docking for cover,
take a question for you didn't answer the question from
the start. I think I know more than you think
I know.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Hello, I'm still a president of Carnival Australia. In recent weeks,
as COVID nineteen started to spread to our north, we
began bringing our Australian best ships back to Australia so
that thousands of passengers could get safely back home. It
was an orderly process that worked.
Speaker 13 (27:46):
I have how many pecks that die?
Speaker 14 (27:53):
That's me, not their mind as well. Star check. If
you've got a beat looking like the pain that goes
with it, you have pay ideas good. We'll be breathing
camping your rising.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
How bad is it?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I wish it on anyone?
Speaker 13 (28:27):
Bill?
Speaker 8 (28:27):
Are you worried about your wife?
Speaker 14 (28:30):
Of course I am.
Speaker 8 (28:32):
You said that she's too ill to come to the window.
How how bad is she? You must be incredibly concerned.
Speaker 22 (28:40):
Hi am that get the whole team, the man to
pick your two years see the best woman in this world.
Speaker 13 (28:52):
I am a very very lucky man to have lady
like I am for somebody happen to.
Speaker 14 (29:00):
Writers are fair.
Speaker 20 (29:02):
The way its tentacles have spread right across the country
reaches into the lives of just ordinary people friends of
our A lady was on this ship, didn't know she
had the virus. Land in Sydney, no instructions know nothing,
flew back to Brisbane and to her horror, infected other
(29:24):
members of her family, including her husband, who I'm advised
is now in hospital.
Speaker 22 (29:32):
It's amount of for ten percent of KVID infections in Australia.
Speaker 14 (29:37):
Well because Ladis Burro, Jiclin and Brad.
Speaker 23 (29:40):
Has good morning everybody, thank you for Timilong.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
When above and beyond federal government polish.
Speaker 12 (29:46):
My question is to the Prime Minister who is responsible
for allowing passengers to disembark the Ruby Princess cruise ship.
Many of them are now presenting their own horrors symptoms.
Speaker 20 (29:58):
You see what happens off on the the public politics
is that the people played.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
There were no New South Wales Health officials present.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
It was him, it was her, it was them.
Speaker 23 (30:10):
New South Wales Health has stated that it undertook a
full assessment at the Ruby Princess and allowed the passengers
to disembark.
Speaker 24 (30:16):
New South Wales Health responding to the Ruby Princess and
the status you are free to disembark tomorrow.
Speaker 8 (30:23):
And then there's this a damning document from the Federal
Department of Agriculture, the people responsible for Australia's biosecurity. It
reveals the Ruby Princess declared it had one hundred and
twenty eight people fall ill on the cruise to New Zealand.
Twenty four of those had a temperature of well over
thirty eight degrees, Six of them had headaches, muscle eggs, vomiting.
(30:48):
This information was passed from the ship to the New
South Wales Department of Health prior to her docking in
Circular Key on March nineteenth. Oko happy to take questions
in relation in relation to the Ruby Princess. I know
the exact figures that your department was given in relation
(31:08):
to the sick people that were on board that boat,
more than one hundred people and many of them suffering
symptoms of COVID nineteen twenty seven hundred passengers were dumped
into the middle of Sydney, and we know what happened
after that. Explain to me how your resignation would not
be on the desk of the Premier tomorrow morning.
Speaker 23 (31:27):
Can I just say that the experts who made the issue,
who made the decision were the best in the world.
Speaker 8 (31:35):
In your department or on the boat to help.
Speaker 23 (31:38):
No, No, I'll take you through it, because it sounds
like you don't actually know how it works.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
I take it through.
Speaker 8 (31:44):
I think I know more than you think on.
Speaker 23 (31:46):
A no no, I'm all right. So the decision that
they took was a decision that was made by medical
professionals of the highest calidor, and from that advice we
can to you. We don't make the decisions. I saw
somewhere that someone said I made the decision on the
Ruby Princess. I didn't know anything about the Ruby Princess.
(32:07):
I was dealing with all the other issues that were
obviously being dealt with. I had no knowledge until the
day after all, the day after that when I was
advised that there.
Speaker 8 (32:15):
Were I think, Minister, the Diamond Princess was a disaster,
but it didn't travel beyond the Diamond Princess. Take a
question for you didn't answer the question from the start
that I'm asking you a question or follow up question
you want to answer that I want to answer.
Speaker 23 (32:28):
Okay, Sorry, it's doctor chant, because there's a level of
enthusiasm here.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
As the Minister indicate it. A panel of public health
doctors do the risk assessment on the ship, and that
is a process. Obviously, if there are learnings and insights
that we will gather, those will be reflected the actions
of New South Wales Health on that day and the
advice of the Public Health Panel was based on the
(32:55):
assessment of that information presented to them. They concluded it
was a low risk, took the action and tested the results.
Speaker 23 (33:02):
Thank you everybody, and I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Okay, thank you, thank you the minister.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
A politician's answer is what I'm hearing. You can't seriously
say that passages that were let off the Ruby Princess,
that went home and infected family members that stayed at
home for seven days and went to hospital and died
a few days later, those.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Lives might have been saved.
Speaker 8 (33:25):
You can't seriously back the decision of his department on that.
Speaker 24 (33:37):
To look out for your overall health and well being.
We have enhanced our pre boarding and on board health protocols,
our advanced sanitation response protocols, servers our foundational basis and
comprehensive practice, and they can keep our ships healthy and clean.
Speaker 8 (34:06):
Dez and Bev Williams married for twenty three years. On
March eight they bordered the Ruby Princess for a family holiday.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
They've been on numerous cruisers and they just saying that
we're going on a cruise.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
We're going on a cruise, so we don't think much
of They're having a great time.
Speaker 7 (34:23):
So every night they went to dinner.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I think they basically went to the same place with
dinner every night, got the same waiter every night. One
night they turned up waiter's farm gone or where's the waiter?
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Oh, he's sick.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
And it was there after that he was gone. They
wouldn't say anyth where he was or what was wrong.
So I suspect that he was from one of them,
oh lord into It was probably the week after they
(34:59):
got back.
Speaker 25 (34:59):
She just that death has had to be a cold
or something. May not have been feeling a hundred percent,
but still was okay. His temperature was going up, and
then the Saturday, I think he had a high temperature starting.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
To have GEPPI be breathing as well. Then, so they're like, well,
we need to do something, until they went to the
local testing station in Towomba. It was only then once
he got into the hospital and tested him and he
found out he had it. The next day give him
austraight away, put in the COVID board and Mum at
that state, still.
Speaker 26 (35:31):
Being in isolation at home, still trying to see you.
Speaker 9 (35:33):
Out of her fourteen days, let's told you just have
to stay at home. You can't come and see him.
So helping helpless, feeling helpless.
Speaker 26 (35:46):
Husband's basically good, got a disease and she can't go
and see him. So you know, I basically had to
go and take up his phone and his eye paid
for him, so shecret at least have some communication with him.
Speaker 7 (35:59):
And that's a big risk for us going to the
hospital and.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Into that area. Then on the Tuesday, Tuesday just gone,
his oxygen level dropped again and they put him on
back on oxygen. And then just out of the blue
that night, the doctor said, there's a dying.
Speaker 9 (36:25):
There is dying. You need to come and see him.
Speaker 26 (36:29):
So she can't can get down a taxi, I can't
pick her up, can't be really so she had to
drive the self.
Speaker 9 (36:39):
Well, come on to see you going to see your
husband the last time.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
See when I saw him ten o'clock.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
On the Tuesday night.
Speaker 7 (36:47):
It was Thursday morning to thirty am that he died.
So bet out of twenty four hours he was apparently
talking to the nurses. Theirs were talking to the nurses every.
Speaker 26 (36:59):
Half hour and they can and checked him and numb.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
The next time the nurse went back, he was dead.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Mhmm m.
Speaker 7 (37:15):
And then so you.
Speaker 9 (37:16):
Have to go up and see the body anyway, Sure.
Speaker 8 (37:23):
If there turns out there's decisions that have been made
by various departments, by this cruise company that have put
your parents in peril. What have those decisions done to
your family?
Speaker 7 (37:39):
Well, they.
Speaker 9 (37:44):
They've decimated our family really better six year old and
a four year old they used to love. See him there,
say now there the grandfather taken away. Yeah, way, stepfather's
taken away as well. We we got on really well,
and my mother loved him. The whole body thing.
Speaker 7 (38:06):
That's just decimated of the family.
Speaker 14 (38:07):
And it ye know, and as we talk now it
has the bard end of time.
Speaker 7 (38:13):
It's faster and.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
Then the clinging. Now is Mom's supposed to get to
the afternoon.
Speaker 8 (38:22):
I'm sorry sorry for you and the family.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
I really am, the whole.
Speaker 9 (38:28):
Whole night, whole d.
Speaker 15 (38:38):
Yeah, because she's swing, no symptoms, but because there just
white and see if somebody death end is coming, some.
Speaker 9 (38:54):
Dressed my earrings.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Right now she's preparing the self or the end.
Speaker 7 (39:03):
Essentially, we can't.
Speaker 9 (39:06):
Go over there, or we can go over there and
see you from a distance. But we can't hugging, we
can't derailing, we can't go and tight and help us.
It's just lonely. Hopefully I'm dying.
Speaker 8 (39:23):
Spare of thought tonight for the crew on board the
Ruby Princess, a ship without a port, passengers without a destination.
They've been drifting up and down the Sydney coast with
a virus, quite literally, jumping from room to room. The
only way they get off is in an ambulance in
the dead of night in boat ramps like this. There's
(39:52):
a forgotten bunch of people in all this, and that
is the crew that is still on board that ship.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah, I'm in touch with a few of them. Can
I read you something that one of them sent me?
Speaker 8 (40:07):
Please?
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I can't say who sent it because they're basically gagged.
So what he said is, try to fight our corner,
our corner a little if you can. The only thing
that we're upset about is the negative press.
Speaker 8 (40:27):
There's eleven hundred crew on board that ship.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
Do you know how many of them are ill?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
I don't know how many are sick from what I've
been told, all but about two hundred are in isolation
and that other two hundred are basically keeping everything running,
keeping everyone fed, and you know, working their asses off
(40:57):
to try and keep everything just going.
Speaker 21 (41:03):
Goomsaclas the foot one fall, they drift about looking conversing.
Speaker 8 (41:13):
On the nineteenth of March, on a beautiful Sydney day,
after dropping its passages, the Ruby Princess prepared to set sail.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
On Dick.
Speaker 8 (41:33):
There was an emotional ceremony.
Speaker 21 (41:35):
Faith Shovi made approval Surebey in honor of her beauty,
and the line overstrewal.
Speaker 8 (41:49):
The crew were happy and relieved to be leaving.
Speaker 21 (41:53):
She brought your thumb and she came out and brob
me lad.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
She drel.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
We sailed away from Sydney on the nineteenth believing we
were virus free.
Speaker 8 (42:07):
As these secret texts from those now trapped on board reveal, we.
Speaker 19 (42:11):
Had a deck party because we had been cleared by
New South Wales help.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
The party lasted one day.
Speaker 24 (42:23):
We've been locked down ever since.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
On the Ruby. There's like three doctors and three nurses
who are now working around the clock trying to look
after you know, over eleven hundred people, twelve hundred people
that thinks Maine.
Speaker 8 (42:43):
Ruby Princess Ruby Princess Ruby, Princess, this is helicopter uniform
Alpha Zulu.
Speaker 6 (42:49):
How is your status on board?
Speaker 27 (42:51):
Over many we get back to your shortcu you can
you just tell me? I mean, which kind of organization.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Do you belong?
Speaker 27 (43:05):
Are you from the new software ahead?
Speaker 8 (43:09):
We are not New South Wales Health no, but we
are concerned about the people you have on board checking
the sage and everything is okay.
Speaker 6 (43:16):
And for a general health check.
Speaker 16 (43:18):
Over in uniform Alfa Zulu will be Princess.
Speaker 10 (43:23):
So only our health reports have been already submitted and
we're dealing already with the New South Wales the Health
of Department.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
That's no need for any further reports.
Speaker 6 (43:35):
Can I ask do you have anyone else on board
who is ill?
Speaker 13 (43:39):
Over?
Speaker 10 (43:41):
So I repeat, all relevant information have been already submitted.
Speaker 16 (43:46):
To relevant as the parstman.
Speaker 10 (43:48):
I am sure there is no need at this stage
for any other report.
Speaker 6 (43:55):
Captain your personal opinion?
Speaker 8 (43:57):
Are you happy with the responses you've had from your
South Wales Health and Australian authorities over okay?
Speaker 10 (44:04):
All we mean again there is no need for any
obinion or any report at this stage. All a lot
of oun information regarding our opinion being already pass to
the authorities assured. Thank you much, sir.
Speaker 27 (44:17):
I believe this is the end of the conversation.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
We are a hard working bunch from fifty one nations
that day in and day out spend our lives fulfilling
the dreams of our guests, and now we're treated like this.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
They're humans. Let them off, don't keep them stranded off
the coast. Sorry, pieces be awful little. The damage has
been done. Let them off.
Speaker 18 (45:05):
This virus is different, and it's sort of different to
anything we've seen before, and we don't have any immunity
to it.
Speaker 7 (45:15):
There has to be a seminal learning for the next
virus or the next related border related security incident.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
If my traveling home infected someone else and they infected
someone else, and if I've helped perpetuate this horrible virus,
that's something I'm going to have to live with.
Speaker 20 (45:46):
Mister tough Guy, Captain tough Guy, Peter Dutt how to
make his reputation through being the meanest, hungriest minister in
the government. Yet it's on his watch that this had
to happen through his adies.
Speaker 13 (46:04):
Why we're told, why weren't we taken care of him?
What can you do now, what is going to happen.
Speaker 14 (46:16):
Is a company going to take responsibility.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
But after the blame game, we need to learn.
Speaker 8 (46:26):
Australia had an opportunity to slow the spread of COVID nineteen.
It's more than an opportunity, really, it was a duty
to protect all of us. A company failed, agencies failed,
ministers failed, contagion spread and lives were lost. The first
step is to admit the mistakes.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
The second make sure they never happen again.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
M
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