"Everyone makes mistakes, and when we judge one another we should bear that in mind." Bret Walkler's report on the Ruby Princess doesn't shy away from anything, including his own discomfort. A great sense of empathy here, mixed in with piercing insights into what went wrong.

Bret Walker also finds that "neither the ABF nor any ABF officers played any part in the mishap." He notes that "Given its lack of medical or epidemiological expertise, it is well for the public good that the ABF ...do not bear any responsibility for the Ruby Princess mishap"

Walker is somewhat less sparing in his findings with respect to the department of agriculture, and the role it plays in granting vessels permission to enter the port

Walker also has an interesting discussion of ministerial accountability, and goes as far as to suggest it wouldn't be appropriate for the Minister to resign - he describes the failures in the Ruby Princess as failures of decision making, not failures of ministerial direction.

"The fly in the ointment" is how Bret Walker describes the Commonwealth here. It took steps to start high court proceedings to quash a summons for an agriculture office. "Quite how this met the Prime
Minister’s early assurance of full co-operation with the Commission escapes me.

I just had a sudden vision of Bret Walker opening a jar of moisturiser and discovering a fly in it. Just think of the letter he would send!!

An error highlighted by Walker right from the outset that was "serious and material" was the failure of the NSW Health expert panel to update what they considered to be a suspect case - essentially all overseas travellers should have been classed in this way, but they weren't.

Although Bret Walker finds the Australian Border Force played no role in the decision making around the Ruby Princess, he is critical of some inaccurate information it initially provided to passengers re quarantine.

This is quite a curious tidbit in Bret Walker's report: He contemplates amendments of the Biosecurity Act to allow group/mass Control Orders to be issued