Jeff Kennett: Dan Andrews’ King’s Birthday honour deserves a ‘please explain’
Granting Daniel Andrews Australia’s highest civilian award is another example of the former premier’s mantra – it is no longer about integrity or what you do or achieve, it’s what you can get away with.
Opinion
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Who gets Australia’s highest civilian award, having left a trail of destruction behind them?
Daniel Andrews.
What were the members of the Council for the Order of Australia thinking in appointing Andrews a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) when, by the words of the citation that supported his honour, he has demonstratively failed?
The council, chaired by Shelley Reys AO, is a body of 16 people drawn from across the country, plus three ex-officio representatives. They make recommendations to the Governor-General on who should be recognised. The Governor-General must have been too busy packing his bags as he was preparing to leave Admiralty House.
To all those who received an award on Monday, I congratulate you. Many of you have worked for years in a voluntary capacity; others have excelled in their chosen field, and still given to society in other ways.
Your efforts have had a positive impact on Australian life.
Reys owes the public an explanation of how her council could possibly justify this award to Andrews. Why was it clearly rushed through and who nominated him? It makes a mockery of all those so honoured and is an insult to the hundreds of Australians who have been nominated for an award but have to wait up to two years before their nomination is resolved.
Winning three elections in itself is no criteria for an award. The citation attached to Andrews’ award only talks about his failures. As I have said before, the list of Andrews’ trail of destruction is endless.
From car accidents, Red Shirts, 800 deaths in hotel quarantine, services in health, education and law enforcement, major infrastructure projects that were ill-conceived, badly managed, all running behind schedule and over budget.
But his worst failings are twofold.
The length of Victoria’s Covid lockdown has had a profound and negative impact on so many of our young schoolchildren. That impact might be with them for the rest of their lives, and I have no doubt, some of the young males, sadly, have turned to crime.
The second failing of Andrews has been the debt he has generated in our name. Heading towards $200bn, it will be a price paid by Victorians for generations.
It is already being felt in the level of taxes and charges we are being forced to pay, destroying many businesses and families. It will reduce the money available for the services we expect the government to provide and is already seeing many Victorians leave the state.
Sadly, granting Andrews Australia’s highest civilian award is another example of the Andrews’ mantra – it is no longer about integrity or what you do or achieve, it’s what you can get away with.
I have written to Governor-General David Hurley asking for this award to be rescinded, in the interests of all those who earned and deserved an Order of Australia Award.
No social justice
The impact of cost of living is being felt everywhere, but here in Victoria the increase in land tax is seeing the supply of rental accommodation very quickly drying up.
The stock that remains is becoming increasingly expensive. Hundreds of single mothers, young Victorians, young families and many senior citizens are going to find themselves in a terrible situation.
It is another example of where in this case the state government is killing the goose that delivers the golden egg.
There is no way the state can provide sufficient accommodation to meet the rental demand.
In the past it has been the private sector in the main that has done so.
Not because of Covid, but the government’s own mismanagement of its infrastructure program and other responsibilities, it has gone several steps too far in lifting the tax rater for middle-income Victorians.
Sadly, the rental shortfall is only going to get worse in the next few years. Another own goal by your Labor state government that used to proudly talk about social justice.
There is absolutely no social justice in reducing Victoria’s rental stock. It has always been a partnership between private investors and government. Not anymore.
The number of investment properties now on the market has never been higher. Investors are selling. They cannot afford to keep their properties.
Holiday homes have also been sold as so many families are asset rich and income poor, but their properties were never part of the rental pool.
Why is the government lifting taxes so much and causing a rental crisis? Because Andrews lifted the state debt to such an unaffordable level, the government can no longer afford the interest payments and the maintenance of our basic services.
Here’s an idea – why don’t we reward Andrews with Australia’s highest civilian honour, an AC. Clever.
Have a good day.
Jeff Kennett is a former premier of Victoria
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