Does smug Martin Pakula think Victorians have forgotten the lockdowns?

It’s odd that in dissing Josh Frydenberg, Martin Pakula sought to remind Victorians of the Andrews government’s response to the pandemic. Who’s really in denial?

Martin Pakula, Victoria’s Minister for Trade and Business, seems fortunate to have his job after the pandemic.

He presided over aspects of the hotel quarantine bungle, an unprecedented scandal in dumb-ass policy with dumb-ass execution, which directly cost more than 800 Victorian lives.

Apparently, this must be old news. Everyone must have moved on. Why else would Pakula invoke smugness to diss outgoing treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Monday?

He explained that denial was not only an Egyptian river, in arguing that Frydenberg had been electorally punished for his take on Victoria’s handling of the pandemic.

Martin Pakula presided over aspects of the hotel quarantine bungle, which directly cost more than 800 Victorian lives. Picture: Aaron Francis

It’s odd that Pakula wants to remind Victorians of his government’s response to Covid. But in taking cheap shots, he has opened the door. For that, he has our thanks.

Does anyone remember how the Andrews government banned playgrounds? Its edicts inspired police officers to bail up old women on park benches and to interrupt funerals to do head counts.

The government suppressed the people for 262 lockdown days, with a stridency that promoted ills, such as depression, to escalate unlike anywhere else. Victorians, Pakula has reminded us, were treated with more contemptuous disdain for their freedoms than any other Australians.

A more reasoned assessment of Frydenberg during the pandemic would suggest he did pretty well. His JobKeeper policy saved untold livelihoods. Indeed, the biggest criticism lies in some unconscionably greedy take-up – especially by some elite private schools – of millions of JobKeeper dollars.

A more reasoned assessment of Josh Frydenberg during the pandemic would suggest he did pretty well. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Frydenberg was also a sensible voice through the absurdly drastic measures of the Andrews government. Late last year, he argued that Victorians should get the same freedoms as the people of NSW. He said it was “really sad that Victorians are being held back” – at a time, it should be remembered, when many Victorians no longer abided by the official advice on what they could or could not do.

Pakula also invites us to recall hotel quarantine. Frydenberg’s Morrison government offered ADF troops, but this offer, unlike elsewhere, was spurned.

Frydenberg may have been smashed electorally. Guilt by association with Morrison seems high up the list.

But if the pandemic response is an election issue, shouldn’t it rightfully play in the state election in November? If it does, and it ought to, who then will be in denial?

Patrick Carlyon is a Herald Sun columnist