Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton has confirmed police did not attend the Sorrento home where Premier Daniel Andrews fell and narrowly avoided permanent spinal injury.
Mr Patton’s comments come days after Ambulance Victoria responded to the opposition’s press release on Monday, in which shadow treasurer Louise Staley demanded the Premier answer questions about the injury which occurred on March 9.
The questions included who called the ambulance and whether police interviewed Mr Andrews.
Senior government ministers this week accused the Coalition of peddling “QAnon craziness” about the circumstances of the Premier’s fall, and warned the Liberal Party was at risk of plunging into a “Trump conspiracy theory wormhole”.
Speaking to ABC Radio on Thursday morning, Mr Patton said police had not been involved.
“I’ve not been told we attended at all,” he said. “Yes, I did ask [whether police had been involved], at this stage I have been advised we haven’t attended.”
When asked if the Premier had been either formally or informally interviewed, Mr Patton said: “No. From my understanding, you’ve got a tragic accident that’s left a person severely injured who happens to be the Premier of the state. That’s not a matter the police will be involved in.”
On Thursday morning, Ms Staley said Ambulance Victoria had answered five of her questions, but she had seven questions outstanding, including the police’s involvement, who was in the house at the time of the incident, the address of the property and its owner.
“The government is trying to concurrently run a line that these questions are illegitimate but then is answering some of them,” Ms Staley said.
“This is the government’s playbook – they attempt to make any questioning illegitimate and then so they’re playing the woman.”
When asked why she thought police would have interviewed Mr Andrews, Ms Staley said: “I don’t know, I’m just asking.”
