Arrogant Andrews thinks we owe him re-election

Daniel Andrews claims his government’s handling of the pandemic was a “triumph” but Victorians continue to pay the price for his gross failures.

Last Sunday having taken my dog Gigi for a long walk along a beach on the Surf Coast on a most beautiful day, I went to buy my coffee and the morning papers.

I went home, got a bowl of muesli and sat down on the veranda to read the papers and enjoy the sunshine.

That was until I read the Sunday Age when I almost choked on my muesli. Assuming the article was a correct account of what Premier Daniel Andrews had said on a podcast, there was Andrews claiming the state’s response and vaccine uptake was a “triumph” suggesting his political opponents should say “well done”.

Andrews then accused Victorian federal ministers of “disloyalty” to Victoria by “bagging” his government amid the lockdowns.

He further claimed credit by saying his government was “doing more to drive up living standards through policy reform than any government since Bob Hawke’s in the 1980s”.

By this stage I fed the rest of my breakfast to Gigi.

Last week I wrote here that the public should not believe the opinion polls a year before the election. The Andrews government, while seemingly so far ahead of the opposition, could lose because they were seen to be ahead, and the public might send the government a message through their vote.

Then this week the Andrews podcast showed how disrespectful he is of the community. Totally divorced from rank-and-file Victorians.

Good leaders never claim credit for what they have done or think they have done. They leave that for others to decide.

But not Andrews, like other controlling leaders past and present, he blows his own trumpet.

The handling of the state’s pandemic response a “triumph”?

Tell that to the families of more than 800 Victorians who died because of the government’s gross failures over hotel quarantine during our second wave.

Tell that to the hundreds of families whose young children have lost interest in their education because schools were closed or are going to be elevated to a higher class next year but will flounder because their academic skills are behind where they should be.

Tell that to the thousands of families who lost their businesses or continue to trade but weighed down by debt.

The list goes on.

The premier admits “some mistakes” for which neither he nor his government have ever taken any responsibility.

I write this not to support or argue a case for the opposition – they are big enough and have enough challenges themselves.

I write because I have never seen such disregard and respect for the fundamental tenets of public service. Such disregard has been in place since the government was elected in 2014. Is it any wonder the public have little regard for those they elect to parliaments?

Now this latest podcast which again shows the premier’s hubris.

He should have heeded my warning last week. Oppositions don’t win governments, governments lose.

Premier Andrews thinks we owe him thanks, a living, re-election.

People are tired of his approach as we have seen over the last few weeks with his legislation to further control our lives. People, in the main, gathered and marched in an orderly fashion, in their thousands, week after week. They will not forget in 12 months’ time.

We are seeing the rise in the number of independents and new parties indicating they are going to contest the next state election.

Why? Because they have had a gutful and are rejecting the autocratic rule under this government’s leadership.

Successive governments after the next election will have to manage a level of debt never before experienced in Victoria.

Spending our way out of trouble is no answer, especially when interest rates rise, and the cost of our borrowings become more expensive. Who will bear the burden of these costs, not the members of the Andrews government, but we the community of Victoria?

It is possible to manage our future, but not with individuals in charge who breach every standard of good governance.

Not with potentially a newly elected group of independents with no experience of managing the public’s financial affairs.

Last week I remarked two good people were leaving the ALP parliamentary team,
now a third, Jane Garrett, has decided to leave.

Garrett had the decency and strength to stand up to the Premier in discharging her ministerial responsibilities, but the cost being she lost her job.

Victorians, we have a massive challenge ahead of us in deciding in 12 months’ time who we are going to choose to provide us with good, competent and honest government.

May I suggest we should all start asking ourselves, in whose hands should we entrust our children’s future?

Which individuals or groups of individuals best live by the standards you want your children to live by?

Who can you trust?

For it is our children who are going to bear the brunt of the government’s self-serving, autocratic failures that we are all going to have to endure.

Have a good day but start thinking about the legacy we wish to leave our children and what we have to responsibly do to assist that legacy.