Crushing lockdowns no barrier to Dan’s success

The expected “anti-Dan” sentiment failed to translate in any significant way at the ballot box as the Premier secured a remarkable win.

Daniel Andrews has cemented his legacy as one of Victoria’s most successful premiers.

If he serves out his third term, Andrews will become the second-longest-serving premier in Victorian history.

He is just one of nine premiers to have won three elections – and he did so despite enforcing crushing lockdowns on Victorians during the Covid-19 pandemic.

That fact alone makes last night’s win even more remarkable.

Before counting began, senior Labor MPs were already making excuses for a worst-case scenario result. They needn’t have bothered.

Daniel Andrews will become the second-longest-serving premier in Victorian history. Picture: Jason Edwards

There was an expected “anti-Dan” sentiment, but it failed to translate in any significant way at the ballot box.

For the Liberal Party, and leader Matt Guy, the result was simply an unmitigated disaster.

The party was holding out hope that the counting of pre-poll votes would improve its outlook. But, failing that, it was facing the prospect of recording a lower primary vote than its disastrous 2018 result.

Given Guy led the party to that election drubbing, too, he will not survive as the party’s leader.

Guy needed to at least win back the seats he lost in 2018 – and he had to make inroads in the seats the party lost the election prior to that.

It failed to do anything of consequence.

The expected ‘anti-Dan’ sentiment failed to translate in any significant way at the ballot box. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

This will prompt yet another wide-ranging review into the party campaign.

Criticisms are expected to centre on its preselection process and chronic instability.

The decision to knife former leader Michael O’Brien was last night being discussed as the party’s biggest pre-election mistake, as was its inability to seriously engage with multicultural communities, middle Australia and millennials.

If it continues to fail to engage with those communities, the Liberal Party will struggle to ever form government again in Victoria.

In the past week, Guy and the party repeatedly insisted that the Coalition could win the election.

But it never believed it.

The election shaped up as a referendum on Daniel Andrews.

However, it ended as a referendum on the Liberal Party and Matt Guy.