Steve Price: Citizen Dan owes the public an update

Daniel Andrews’ disappearing act over the past 60 days smacks of the arrogance displayed throughout the Covid debacle. Victorians deserve to know where he is.

Daniel Andrews posted this picture with his daughter on social media. Picture: Supplied

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been on sick leave — after suffering a serious spinal injury — for 60 days today and it’s said he might be back at work next month.

If he returns in June, as Acting Premier and colleague James Merlino was forced to admit to the media this week, that would be about three months off work.

Given the severity of the accident — and no-one is doubting it was serious — plus the extended time away from his desk, doesn’t the Victorian public deserve a lot more detail about what actually happened?

A commitment from the Premier about his long-term ambitions should also be forthcoming.

An update from the man himself would be handy, although I am sure he’s reluctant to take questions about what really happened that Tuesday morning, or the current state of Victoria.

Merlino this week didn’t volunteer an update on the Premier’s condition and timetable of a comeback, instead it came after a question from one of the media.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews shared this image when he left ICU.

He said the Premier was “up and about” and tips he will be back in June. The Acting Premier revealed he had been in regular contact with his boss.

In the 60 days Victoria has functioned without the head of the elected government doing his job we have been given just two images of Dan Andrews — one in a brace in hospital just after the accident and a black and white shot of him and one of his daughters at home recuperating.

It got me thinking this week of asking the question of Daniel Andrews — Where are you?

Clearly others in the media were thinking the same thing and surely the public who endured so much in 2020 during Australia’s — and one of the world’s longest — lockdowns need some answers as well.

It’s simply not good enough to just disappear off the face of the earth. A public appearance from the man who was on our TV screens every day for more than a year isn’t too much to ask, surely.

No one has owned up to the mistakes that allowed Covid to rip through aged care. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

I once went to a news conference with South Australian Premier Don Dunstan who was dying of cancer. Dressed in a bathrobe he wanted to get the message out himself to the public.

Daniel Andrews’ disappearing act smacks of the arrogance displayed all through the Covid debacle that was hotel quarantine in Victoria that claimed the lives more than 800 people.

Still no-one has owned up to the mistakes that allowed Covid to rip through aged care. No-one has taken responsibility for the Covid bomb that led to lockdowns and the decimation of much of Melbourne’s hospitality industry.

As bad as a serious spinal injury is, Premier Andrews has never lost a cent of income as a result of his accident or the pandemic.

Month after month every politician and public servant in Victoria has had a lump of cash dumped into their bank account just as if nothing had ever happened.

Acting Premier James Merlino is cheery but he’s not in charge. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

In the real world, workers have been forced on to job-keeper or sacked and small business- people have lost their houses as income dried up and they went broke.

Sixty days is a long time, and it would not be impossible surely for the incapacitated Premier to use his Covid lockdown communication app of choice, Zoom, to talk to the people.

As we know the Victorian government — pre the back injury — was the personal fiefdom of Daniel Andrews. He is said to be a control freak and we saw that with him unwilling to let anyone but himself start the daily Covid update.

Anyone who thinks he hasn’t been pulling the strings from his sickbed is kidding themselves. That means the problems that we see in Victoria in general and the Melbourne CBD in particular are down to him.

James Merlino is a cheery chap with a nice smile and clean glasses — certainly not as physically intimidating as Andrews — but no-one is kidding themselves he’s in charge.

I guess the banged-up Premier would prefer not to respond to questions about his ripped-up belt and road deal with the Chinese and how much face he has lost with those he did the deal with.

He’s probably sick of talking about hotel quarantine and why Victorian taxpayers are paying contracted workers who don’t even turn up because the job doesn’t exist.

The Premier would probably prefer not to respond to questions about his ripped-up belt and road deal with the Chinese.

And it’s always awkward for him to explain, I am sure, when asked if he’s comfortable that the school next to his injecting facility in Richmond needed to shut because of a body in the playground.

Then you have violent home invasions, a bungled tunnel project held up by contaminated soil, what’s been described as the world’s worst electric vehicle policy, the never-ending Monash Freeway widening or an ambulance crisis with intolerable waiting times.

After a year of daily appearances to just talk Covid, the thought of having to deal with mundane issues like the quality of life in Melbourne and the viability of running a business here must just seem too much like hard work.

Who could blame Citizen Dan for wanting to remain just that a normal bloke who suffered a dreadful back injury slipping on some stairs, who during recovery, figured going back to work was all too hard.

Victorians clearly have a love hate relationship with Daniel Andrews. Some people love him, and some hate him I guess the politician in him is weighing up whether the lovers outweigh the haters before he decides to front up again.

Originally published as Steve Price: Citizen Dan owes the public an update