Why Daniel Andrews’ power surge has been so damaging

“Iso” seems to be having the same impact on Premier Daniel Andrews’ political skills as it’s had on the social skills of the average six-year-old. When he tried to extend the state of emergency for Victoria, he seemed genuinely bewildered anyone could have doubted his good intentions. But he was wrong, writes James Campbell.

You can understand why Daniel Andrews might have been surprised at how badly the public and the Legislative Council reacted to his plan to give himself the power to extend Victoria’s state of emergency for another year. Since he was re-elected with a thumping majority almost two years ago, “no” hasn’t been a word he’s been used to hearing from his cabinet, caucus and certainly not from the Legislative Council. And since the current crisis began, he hasn’t really had to listen to them at all. Cabinet government has been replaced by a crisis committee — dubbed “the COVID-8” by unkind colleagues; caucus briefings have been thin on the ground and parliament has barely sat. Oh, and for good measure, the normal governing structures of the ALP have been suspended by a federal intervention. Unfortunately “iso” seems to be having the same impact on the Premier’s political skills as it has had on the social skills of the average six-year-old. He seemed genuinely bewildered anyone could have doubted his good intentions.

Premier Daniel Andrews needs to tell us what the plan is. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Labor’s backbench on the other hand were horrified at the stupidity.

They’ve been out and about in their communities these past few months and they know how on edge everyone is.

It was no surprise to them their offices — and those of crossbench MPs — were immediately deluged with emails from angry constituents.

And not just the normal pro-forma emails you can ignore, but emails full of real personal stuff about how hard people are finding this.

They weren’t just writing, they were ringing too. The word that comes up more often than any other is “visceral”.

“People are over it,” one MP said, adding the casual way the leadership had treated the extension of the state of emergency made him fear they would be unprepared for the public reaction if as seems likely the current regime is extended past September. The Herald Sun, which captured the concerns on Tuesday’s front page, has received more than 5000 reader comments.

You can see why. The public response to the aborted legislation was, one suspects, not really about the specifics.

Yes, some people will have mistakenly thought the proposal meant a 12-month extension of current lockdown, when it meant no so such thing.

Others, however, will have reacted the way they did because they took away the same message as Jeff Kennett — the announcement showed the Premier has “no confidence in our ability to get the virus under control”.

I would go further. What some of us are struggling with is not our faith or otherwise in the government’s abilities, it’s that six months into this crisis we still don’t know what “under control” means.

How many cases can we can have a day without being imprisoned in our homes? Is it 20? 30? 50? What’s the plan, Dan? And if we do get there, what confidence can we have that these numbers won’t go roaring back up again as soon as we start to unlock things again?

When you push ministers about this, they concede Victoria’s contact tracing regime wasn’t fit for purpose back in May but say it has been greatly improved since. When we finally start returning to some sort of normal, the expectation is it shouldn’t — fingers crossed — get away from us again.

In other words, we’re just going to have trust them.

And as some Labor MPs realise, public trust is not a commodity the producers of Quarantine Hotel Hell have in abundance at the moment.

“This would never have happened if they’d bothered to ask us what we thought,” another MP said of the planned extension.

The same might be said of something that has been filling MPs inboxes for a lot longer — the Premier’s decision to sign Victoria up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative six weeks before the last election without any prior public discussion.

Back then, it will be recalled, it took two weeks for the government to quietly announce the agreement and the better part of another month before it was cajoled into releasing it publicly.

The decision to double-down a year later in the face of opposition from the commonwealth has been a source of disquiet ever since.

And not just with voters; a large slab of the Labor Party’s Right is deeply unhappy about the arrangement as well, especially in Canberra.

The news that Andrews’ Belt and Road deal is to be cancelled by the federal government has come as a relief. Picture: Wayne Taylor

What irks some backbenchers is Andrews has stubbornly stood by his decision as China-Australia relations have soured, without every really trying to convince the public of its merits.

Not unlike the way he handled the state of emergency extension. Labor MPs are also frustrated they’ve never been given much ammunition to sell the scheme.

“There’s just been some stuff about jobs,” one complains, but nothing that would help put to rest fears that the BRI represents some kind of Chinese takeover.

Having failed to sell the agreement for two years — indeed looking increasingly like he couldn’t be bothered trying — the news Andrews’ deal is to be cancelled by the federal government has come as a relief.

It is unlikely Scott Morrison was trying to get Andrews out of a hole of his own digging but his plan to use the commonwealth’s external affairs power to nullify the agreement has delighted some Labor MPs who knew their man would never back down.

As one put it: “Morrison has done us a favour — this would have been a millstone around our necks.”

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James Campbell is a Herald Sun columnist

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