Liberals should stop talking about Dan Andrews if they want to win
If the Liberal Party hopes to topple Daniel Andrews at the next election there’s at least one thing they need to stop doing, says Matt Johnston.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The obsession with Daniel Andrews needs to end.
If state Liberal Party leader Michael O’Brien wants to reset after the failed coup on his job, launched by disgruntled (now former) frontbenchers, he should start by changing his team’s tactics towards the premier.
For seven years, the state opposition has targeted Dan directly in almost everything they have done.
Energy prices up? Daniel Andrews jacked up your bills.
Trains are late? Dan stuffed the rail network.
By repeatedly taking this approach they have increased the presence and specter of Labor’s leader even as they tried to tear him down.
During the hotel quarantine debacle they went harder still, smelling blood in the water around “Dictator Dan”.
To their chagrin, Dan found a way to win new fans even as the hate from parts of the population grew.
Recently, the opposition was referring to the premier only by his surname in written media comments.
He wasn’t the premier, or Daniel Andrews, but “Andrews”.
Even now, with Dan effectively bedridden with a broken back, he remains the obsessive focus.
Liberals tell anyone listening that the public’s hate is growing, or that the premier is cooked. At the same time some forlornly concede their best chance of winning an election may be in a post-Dan world.
They desperately want that to happen sooner rather than later.
Why not do the next best thing and pretend Dan doesn’t exist?
Target the Labor brand and its problems rather than the man who leads it in Victoria?
Political observers are sometimes baffled by the premier’s personal standing.
A lot of people seem to dislike him, but still respect the job he’s doing and feel he is leading. They think he has largely delivered on promises that matter to many – such as building infrastructure and schools.
They would vote for the party he leads because they largely know what to expect, even if they refer to him as Dictator Dan.
The Liberals and O’Brien remain a largely unknown proposition, 18 months from the next state election.
During an interview on the weekend, O’Brien suggested he would start to focus on policy rather than whingeing.
Sounds like a plan.
But when pushed towards the negative, will he focus on Labor’s problems, or the bloke who leads the party?
Back in 2014, Dan embarked on what many journalists found a radical and frustrating concept.
He started to ignore the then-Napthine government’s attacks on him and wouldn’t respond to many issues they raised, repeatedly saying the Liberals were irrelevant to his “positive plan for Victoria”.
He only started to do this once he had enough meat on policy bones, of course.
Those around Dan at the time said he felt liberated, even if direct results were hard to measure.
It’s time to take a leaf out of Dan’s book, by ignoring him.
More Coverage
Bolt: Albanese doesn’t have much further to fall
Voters are no longer going to buy the idea that Anthony Albanese knows their struggles as he relaxes in his new home with its magnificent ocean views. For the first time his own ministers are telling journalists he has no judgment.
Maiden: Cashed-up Albo is rubbing young voters’ noses in it
It’s one thing to be loaded after decades in parliament but it’s another to flaunt it so close to an election, writes Samantha Maiden.