Victorian Liberal MP Richard Riordan says it is convenient a suite of new evidence was handed to the hotel quarantine inquiry on its last day after Premier Daniel Andrews had fronted the inquiry.

Mr Riordan said he thought the results from the hotel quarantine inquiry would be as “fantastical” as the concept of Santa Claus ahead of the December 21 report release date.

“This is an arms-length inquiry, it’s separate from the government, its cost millions of dollars, it’s just what the Victorian people need and just magically, all this extra evidence gets dumped just after the premier finishes giving his evidence to the parliamentary inquiry, meaning we have no capacity to further quiz him on it,” he said.

“For months now this inquiry has been going on and for months the Premier of Victoria has been absolutely incapable of talking to Victorians and telling us what happened.”

Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry has been handed certain text messages that Premier Daniel Andrews sent to his Chief of Staff, among a suite of new key documents handed to the inquiry on its final day of hearings.

At the same time, Daniel Andrews has been appearing before Victoria’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s coronavirus inquiry.

This latest evidence to the hotel quarantine inquiry included an affidavit from the former secretary of the premier’s department and cabinet, Chris Eccles and text messages from him, and a new statement from the Premier.