Rita Panahi: Taxpayers funding Andrews’ vacuous vanity exercise

What possible justification is there for public money being squandered on boosting Facebook “likes” for the Dan Andrews’ page?

Victorian taxpayers are funding Premier Dan Andrews’ vacuous vanity project with almost $800,000 spent on Facebook alone.

What possible justification is there for public money being squandered on boosting Facebook “likes” for the Dan Andrews’ page?

Does the Victorian premier have ambitions of being an Australian Kardashian?

A cursory glance at the Dan Andrews page, which has 960,000 ‘likes’ or ‘follows’, shows pictures of him with his children, a selection of waterfalls, plenty of political messaging and an update about a lost dog.

Not a single cent of public money should be spent on this indulgence, let alone $770,000 since 2014.

This isn’t an official government or departmental account used for disseminating public health messages but a Dan Andrews branded page designed to boost his presence and popularity on Facebook.

No doubt there’s also been public expenditure on Andrews’ other social media platforms and none of it is justifiable.

If the premier wants to buy ‘likes’ then the Labor Party should be footing the bill, not Victorian taxpayers who are already funding the salaries of Andrews’ social media team.

Compare Andrews’ social media presence with the premier of NSW, Gladys Berejiklian, who was well ahead of the pack in re-opening her state and managed to keep her citizens safe while taking the majority of overseas arrivals including many Victorians and Queenslanders who could not quarantine in their home state.

Right now NSW is taking just over 3,000 overseas arrivals a week, more than the rest of the country combined.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s program is suspended again after the latest hotel quarantine mishap.

NSW has a COVID-19 death rate of just seven per million of population, compared with around 130 deaths per million for Victoria.

But never mind, Andrews has way more Facebook ‘likes’ with Berejiklian on just 90,000.

Get with the program, Gladys!

During the pandemic Andrews’ Facebook page has seen a massive jump in likes/followers compared to every other Australian politician.

But one wonders why Andrews needs to spend taxpayer funds to spread propaganda on social media when so many of his foot soldiers in the mainstream media do it for free.