Dan’s tantrum just another political stunt

Victorians are sick of the Premier’s relentless politicking and scaremongering. The blame-shifting needs to stop.

Dan Andrews’ unedifying tantrum at Tuesday’s press conference is another sign that he’s more interested in playing politics than ending the pandemic pain.

The Victorian Premier would rather give the impression that there is a vaccine supply issue so he can bash the prime minister and the NSW Premier than focus on conveying the accurate, responsible message that there are literally millions of doses of AstraZeneca for any adult who wants to be vaccinated.

Only last week I praised Premier Andrews for pivoting from dangerous political grandstanding about vaccine availability to making it unequivocally clear that the safe, effective and Victorian-produced AZ jab was in plentiful supply.

Clearly, I spoke too soon.

Spurred on by another flawed ABC hit job on the federal government, the Premier was back to disingenuous political point scoring; oscillating between playing the blame game to playing the victim.

“I signed up to the national plan to vaccinate our nation, not a national plan to vaccinate Sydney,” Andrews thundered. “We have seen hundreds of thousands of vaccines that should have come and should now be in the arms of Victorians going into Sydney and into GP practices in NSW.”

Daniel Andrews was back to disingenuous political point scoring on Tuesday. Picture: David Crosling

But he wasn’t done there. He even suggested Sydney was stockpiling vaccines with doses sitting in warehouses instead of going into people’s arms. Then there was this melodramatic pronouncement: “We are not doormats that will sit here and cop this!”

Andrews then had the temerity to suggest that no one in the country had done more to promote AZ than him. I believe that’s what our Jewish friends call chutzpah.

Also concerning is the level of scaremongering around kids and Covid with the premier and his bureaucrats failing to advise what underlying health issues, if any, patients under 18 have when hospitalised with Covid.

Last week Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said this about the issue: “There have been 134 hospitalisations, that’s 3.5 per cent hospitalisation rate … most of the kids that have been admitted to hospital have been for social reasons, not because they are particularly unwell.”

Victorians need clarity and all the facts, not relentless scaremongering and politicking from a premier whose Covid-zero fantasy has caused untold damage to the state. He’s finally abandoned Covid-zero but now wants to shift blame for Victoria trailing NSW’s vaccination rate. Enough.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

Originally published as Dan’s tantrum just another political stunt