Radio host Luke Darcy earned praise after a tense interview with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews
In an emotional on-air exchange with Premier Daniel Andrews, former AFL star Luke Darcy has revealed that isolation and loneliness brought on by Victoria’s harsh lockdown cost his father’s life.
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Luke Darcy has earned widespread praise for his robust questioning of Premier Daniel Andrews on radio Monday morning.
The Triple M Hot Breakfast co-host was trending on Twitter after his exchange which had the Premier on the backfoot.
It comes after former Collingwood star Dane Swan launched a withering, expletive-ridden attack at Mr Andrews.
Darcy began by suggesting to the Premier that research suggested extreme lockdowns had the opposite effect.
He also asked why the extension of lockdown was the only choice, if the Premier could guarantee no more restrictions in 2021, and why the Premier had not taken advice from an independent panel.
“Premier, I must admit I’m astounded to hear you say that it wasn’t even a 50/50 decision and that there is no other way and no other evidence,’’ Darcy said.
“There’s an incredible study just been done suggesting that extreme lockdowns have the opposite effect and do not work, and they cause immeasurable harm and actually in the end when you open up again you will get more cases and if that’s your policy you’ll go back to more lockdown.
“You’ve had a letter written by 500 medical experts in this town who are at the coalface day to day. Not five, not 25 — 500 medical experts who are saying to you there is a better way Premier, there is a more humane way.
“You can do this, you can get out and have a message. We were looking for nuance and sophistication yesterday, and hope.
“I wanted to see a plan that said Victoria can live with this virus better than any state in the world. Instead we got more barbaric lockdowns, more devastation for people.
“Why won’t you form an independent panel, take on board a broader range of medical advice outside of the chief health officer, get some of these medical people around a table because they are telling you Premier, very clearly, you can do this better, you can do this more humanely, you can open up and they’re not buying that you didn’t have other choices.”
The Premier responded by pointing the situation in Spain, where cases have spiralled.
But Darcy didn’t back down.
He even pointed to the death of his own father, David Darcy last month, as an example of how lockdowns cost lives.
“We do live with viruses and we are able to do that without locking up healthy people and destroying their futures for decades to come,’’ Darcy said.
“It’s lacking in nuance, it’s lacking in sophistication and I think that’s where people are at the end of what has been a path that is causing … you have to admit the policy has caused death, the policy by locking people down has tipped suicide into a level that’s untenable.
“Tipped mental health into a level that’s untenable. That’s a cost of these measures as well Premier. We didn’t hear about that yesterday.”
He added: “I lost my 78 year old father Premier, during this time. And you know what happened to him. He was a very similar person to you actually Premier. He loved his golf, he was isolated in his home.
“He wasn’t dying from this, he was dying from the isolation and the loneliness because he couldn’t get to the gym, he couldn’t run his business that he built for his family his entire life so what was happening was the policies were causing harm Premier.
“That was a very big part … no one is more compassionate about the elderly. But we can pivot to actually supporting them in a meaningful way.”
The Premier also stood his ground and backed the government’s advice.
He said: “Darce, you talk about nuance, and the nuance of it and the sophistication of it, the basic facts of it are these. If you properly defeat the second wave then you are in a position to deal with some additional cases, some outbreaks and then maintain it at very low levels.
“On the other side of that coin, I know we desperately want it to be over, if we pretend that it is when in fact it isn’t, and we open the place up again. we won’t be open for very long.
“And instead of dealing with small numbers of cases in as you say February or March, we’ll be dealing with hundreds and thousands of cases and we’ll have no alternative but to reimpose very difficult sanctions.
“I’m not for a moment arguing that they’re not. These restrictions are very tough and they have a cost, yes. The cost of taking them all off too soon is far greater.
“You’ve got to get it down to such low levels that you’ve effectively beaten it in the second wave, otherwise you’re just marching towards a third wave. I think the consequences of having to go back into another lockdown or having to jump back and forth from one set of restrictions to another, where there’s no certainty at all. That will do even more damage than has been done to this point.”
After about 17 minutes of the interview, Eddie McGuire then awkwardly thanked the Premier for joining the show.
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