Riled by rumours, Premier Daniel Andrews seeks to quell the gossip
PREMIER Daniel Andrews spent 53 minutes on Thursday allowing journalists “ask whatever you need to ask, whatever you want to ask”, writes Matt Johnston.
Opinion
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IN Melbourne’s picturesque Treasury Gardens, Premier Daniel Andrews spent 53 minutes on Thursday allowing journalists to “ask whatever you need to ask, whatever you want to ask”.
“I won’t be offended by anything,” he said at the outset.
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This was Andrews at his most candid, and even his fiercest critics would have to concede it was a bold public performance.
It reminded me of Julia Gillard in 2012, when the then-prime minister stood in front of the puffed-up Canberra press gallery to answer every question it had about a union slush fund.
The main reason for the Premier’s unusual latitude to media was to address rumours swirling around a car crash his family had in 2013, when a teenage bike rider hurtled on to a Blairgowrie road and collided with the then-Opposition leader’s car. Back when the incident occurred, it took more than a week for Andrews to confront the issue publicly. Even then, it was only after questions from the Herald Sun .
That delay, which was one of several instances of terrible judgment by Andrews and his office during four years in Opposition, was the main reason tongues initially wagged.
“It later emerged that the driver of the car — Andrews’ wife Catherine — had not been breathalysed by police officers, setting people off again.
The Premier was quick to scotch a series of “fantasies” on Thursday, including that he had been the driver or that either he or Catherine had been drinking.
“The reading would have been 0.0 because she had nothing to drink, and nor had I,” he said.
“Contrary to rumours, this was a family holiday at the beach. And it’s not our practice to be at the beach at 10am, drinking.” Each to their own, I suppose.
There was also the rumour that firefighters had attended as first responders, and somehow influenced the way an investigation into the crash occurred.
Rubbish, the Premier said.
Eventually questions moved to another whisper, that the reason Andrews was so keen to please United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall was that he had been recorded making unseemly comments.
“Complete nonsense,” he said.
Ever since Andrews folded to Marshall in 2016 and gave him the keys to the CFA in a new industrial agreement, people have offered variations of this rumour.
Even some of his colleagues, who are on Team Dan, have expressed surprise at his unwillingness to push back against the union secretary’s demands every now and again.
Once most of the direct conspiracy theories about the UFU’s influence had been rejected by Andrews, he offered up this thought. “No doubt there will another rumour tomorrow. There will be one the day after that. I reckon you’ve got the smarts to work out when you are being sold something that’s just not right.”
Within an hour of this statement, I had someone call me up and prove his point.
This person wanted to know if anyone had asked if police looked at how far the driver’s seat was back at the time of the crash. The assertion was that the Premier is taller than his wife so this should show whether it was, in fact, Andrews driving.
One of the things the Premier does well is pretend he has never delved into the dark arts of political treachery.
During the press conference, there was this blunt assessment of the world in which he resides, however, and the ease with which people can be slandered.
“The easiest thing in politics is to spread rumours, and tell stories, try to dirty up your opponent, that’s fine, that’s politics,” he said.
This was not necessarily an appeal for these grubby tactics to stop, but a blunt recognition about the grubby nature of the game.
A good part of what journalists are required to do on a daily basis is check whether there are any facts in certain rumours.
Some of the more ridiculous are usually filed in the bulls--- basket, while others are investigated.
We don’t always get it right.
Many of the salacious tips involve alleged sexual exploits of elected representatives. At the moment, at least one of these had gained enough traction to be “doing the rounds” in Canberra.
The rise of social media, and the willingness for keyboard crazies to spread gossip with an apparent flagrant disregard for truth or legal repercussions, has made gossip peddling so much worse.
One former federal MP is embarrassing himself on social media at the moment.
Hypocrites from both sides of politics cry foul when things are being floated about someone on their side, but too often fan the flames with glee when it’s someone from the other side.
On Thursday, the Premier did the right thing by dousing some of the flames on his side, opening himself up to questions and explaining everything he did on the day of the car crash. He knows too well that this is what he should have done in early January 2013, instead of hiding it for nine days and allowing his enemies to exploit it for the following 4½ years.
Matt Johnston is state politics editor
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