Daniel Andrews rejects Jenny Mikakos’ Twitter troll claim
Premier Daniel Andrews says his staff don’t have “the time or the interest” to attack former health minister Jenny Mikakos on social media, after his one-time ally accused his chief of staff of trolling her.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Daniel Andrews has attacked former health minister and ally Jenny Mikakos, suggesting she fabricated a claim his office staff were trolling her online.
It comes as the Premier came under fire for being “tone deaf” after posting pictures of doughnuts and whisky to celebrate a day of no new cases, despite the fact 800 people have died during the second wave.
Ms Mikakos, who quit in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic after being blamed for the bungled hotel quarantine program, accused the Premier’s chief of staff Lissie Ratcliff of trolling her.
“PPO trolls come out to play. You should be embarrassed @lissieratcliff,” she tweeted. PPO is short for Premier’s Private Office.
The tweet was in response to a tweet from an anonymous troll account calling on the former minister to respond to Victoria’s second day of no new COVID-19 cases.
Ms Mikakos removed her tweet moments after posting it.
The troll account has since been restricted by Twitter due to “unusual activity”.
Created this month the account has just two followers and regularly trolls journalists critical of Mr Andrews.
But the Premier quickly dismissed Ms Mikakos’s claim his staffers were behind the trolling.
Asked whether she was “making it up”, the Premier said: “It is nonsense. I probably can’t be any clearer than that.
“My staff work very hard for the people of Victoria.
“They’re not involved in that sort of nonsense. And any suggestion that they are is plainly wrong.”
Mr Andrews said he did not need to check with his staff to ensure they were not involved in the trolling.
“They haven’t got the time or the interest to be involved in that sort of stuff,” he said.
Ms Mikakos has used Twitter as her platform of choice to subtly attack the Premier since her resignation.
Last month she suggested the state government was pursuing an eradication strategy despite repeated denials by the Premier.
And on Sunday she tweeted that it was time for Victoria to open up after Mr Andrews stalled his anticipated restriction easing announcement.
The controversial tweet came amid a social media backlash against Mr Andrews after he posted a photo on Monday night of two glasses of whisky hours after announcing an easing of restrictions.
“Said I’d go a little higher up the shelf. Here’s to you, Victoria,” he wrote as the caption.
Mr Andrews also posted a photo of him celebrating a day of zero new coronavirus infections with a doughnut.
But unimpressed social media users were quick to remind the Premier of his government’s coronavirus failures.
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien weighed in, saying:
“I actually thought him posting photos of himself with doughnuts and glasses of whisky, it was pretty tone deaf for those people who have suffered so much through this lockdown.” Liberal MP Tim Smith was also mocked on social media for posting an image of four doughnuts which some pointed out looked like male genitalia.
Mr Smith had used the doughnuts to form the number “800”.
“That’s the number Daniel Andrews should be reflecting on,” he wrote.
“Rather than gloating, he should take responsibility for 800 Victorians who died in the second wave caused by his hotel quarantine fiasco.”
READ MORE:
EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT RESTRICTIONS EASING