Peta Credlin: Does maskless Dan Andrews think he’s above the law?

Being caught heading into the office without a mask — twice — is just the latest in a litany of failures from Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, writes Peta Credlin.

Caught out twice sliding into the office without a mask; doesn’t that exactly capture a political leader who thinks he is above the law?

He was a senior figure in the Victorian Labor Party machine before he entered Parliament. That’s now in administration over systemic rorting and branch-stacking claims.

He was the health minister before he was Premier. Today, Victoria’s hospital system is in crisis, with ICU bed shortages and ambulance queues making headlines.

Daniel Andrews puts on his face mask during a press conference. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Daniel Pockett

He was once the gambling minister. Crown Casino is embroiled in a royal commission in Victoria — but only after NSW held a royal commission into Crown’s operations in Melbourne and shamed them.

He won office in 2014 with a “red-shirt” army; an independent report later found that these political campaigners were actually part-paid by the taxpayer, yet his government spent $1 million in the courts to try to keep the report secret.

He bragged that hotel quarantine was his idea. Yet by refusing to use the military and police like other states, Victoria’s Covid management was a debacle with 801 dead. To add insult to injury, a whitewash of an inquiry found no one was to blame.

He passed Australia’s toughest industrial manslaughter laws. Yet Work Safe Victoria is only charging a government department, not real people, over 58 breaches in hotel quarantine – with taxpayers on the hook for around $100 million in fines if the department is found guilty.

Cartoonist Mark Knight’s take on Dan Andrews being caught not wearing a mask

And in the same week that the NSW Premier was replaced, after resigning because she was under investigation by her state’s anti-corruption watchdog, Daniel Andrews and his government are reportedly the subject of two separate probes by Victoria’s anti-corruption equivalent.

He says he won’t stand aside.

Have we ever seen a leader like Daniel Andrews?

So why does Victoria put up with him?

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Does maskless Dan Andrews think he’s above the law?