Editorial: Dan Andrews makes right choice for Labor
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has done the right thing in stepping down early enough to give his successor the best possible chance at the next election, writes the editor.
Opinion
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Outgoing Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has done the right thing for the Labor Party in voluntarily stepping down early enough in his third term to give his successor the best possible chance at the next election, in three years from now.
It has been difficult in Australian politics for the same leader to win four straight elections – no matter how popular they might have once been, the voters reach a point at which they have seen enough.
Stepping aside at the right time is also a good thing for the leader themselves. Too many years in the top job – with all its comfortable leather-padded, taxpayer-funded trappings – tends to leave long-term leaders disconnected from the tougher realities of life.
At best, they can become aloof. At worst, dangerously arrogant.
Mr Andrews said yesterday he believed the right time to go was when people still think you should stay. We would add that it must also come before the leader has even a single moment believing that leading the state or nation is their personal divine right.
There is, after all, no more accurate truism than that a rooster today can easily find themselves a feather-duster tomorrow. In fact, that is indeed the guaranteed future for every political leader.
A embarrassingly cancelled Commonwealth Games aside, Mr Andrews leaves office at 5pm today if not at his peak then certainly not far off it. At the last state election, in November last year, the fourth-term Andrews government added a seat to its tally, leaving it with 56 in the 88-seat Lower House – the Victorian party’s second-best ever seat result. His Coalition rivals remained in Labor’s dust, with 28.
Mr Andrews remains a divisive figure in a state still suffering the aftershocks from his world’s-longest Covid-19 lockdown – and the polling was starting to turn against him. But there were no alarm bells yet. He could have taken the no-doubt tempting option to stay on – basking in the enduring adulation of an active and vocal fan club.
Last month, a Resolve poll for The Age newspaper found there was still 39 per cent primary vote support for Labor in Victoria – nine percentage points ahead of the Coalition, which was on 28 per cent.
In Queensland in August, for comparison, the same pollster found the governing Labor Party’s primary vote had slumped to 32 per cent – six percentage points behind the LNP opposition, on 38 per cent.
On the question of preferred premier, Mr Andrews still led his opposition rival 44-29 – a stark difference to Queensland, where Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is now trailing David Crisafulli 36-37.
And even on the net likability measure, Mr Andrews was leading his rival by 2 percentage points (albeit at minus 7 to minus 9).
Here in Queensland, the Premier scored minus 15 on that measure in the August polling, compared to Mr Crisafulli’s plus 7.
The trends were not great for Mr Andrews, but he was still well on top. That means the new Labor leader there has been be gifted the best possible start when it comes to the task of leading the party to victory at the 2026 election.
Now, clearly there is a long way to go until that time. But by not being selfish and doing the best thing for his party by stepping aside at the right time, Mr Andrews can walk away from public life with his held head high.
Political history suggests the alternative could well have been an embarrassing defeat.
TOURISM FIGHTBACK STORY WORTH TELLING
As fightback stories go, it would be challenging to find a better one than the one new figures out today tell of Queensland’s tourism industry.
So much of the industry so critical to the Sunshine State’s prosperity was on its knees for so long during the dark days of Covid-19 border closures and lockdowns. And yet in the year to this June, overnight visitors spent more in the state than they did in the last full pre-Covid-19 year of 2019.
As we report today, an average of $91m was spent every day over the past year by visitors – adding up to a total of $33.2bn, compared to $25.5bn pre-Covid-19.
It is a remarkable achievement. But what is just as promising as that rebound is that the industry has no plans to rest on its laurels. Instead, it has set a goal of having overnight visitor expenditure grow to $44bn by 2032 – the equivalent of $121m each and every night.
It is a goal described – no doubt intentionally – as “aspirational”.
But the fact the industry has already made up $8bn of the $19bn gap to the 2019 result suggests that this is a North Star that could well be within reach for Queensland.
A key component of the growth has been skyrocketing domestic business visitation, with that spend of $4.7bn in the past year up almost 77 per cent on the year prior. That is surely a number that will continue to grow as business interest in our state increases in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Add international tourism and it could be all blue skies ahead.
Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here