The Andrews government’s Insights Victoria program is an amateur version of China’s surveillance state

The Big Brother-style agency used by Daniel Andrews shows us the premier is enamoured by China’s surveillance state.

Someone should tell Dan Andrews that George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 was not meant to be an instruction manual.

The premier’s power hungry antics are matched by his government’s culture of secrecy and cover ups.

Revelations in the Sunday Herald Sun give an insight into the sinister methods employed by the Andrews government to monitor unsuspecting citizens and the misuse of public money to give Labor an electoral advantage.

Premier Andrews has spent over $4 million of public money on a Big Brother-style agency that is being used to monitor everything from the spending patterns of Victorians to their mental health to their social media activities.

Daniel Andrews’ power hungry antics are matched by his government’s culture of secrecy and cover ups. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Ostensibly set up to monitor “behaviour and sentiments” in relation to coronavirus restrictions, the Insights Victoria project is now an “enduring platform” that’s evolving “to support cross-portfolio decision making beyond Covid-19”.

Now, this information isn’t readily available to bureaucrats nor ministers, other than on a “need to know basis” and it’s certainly not available to the opposition, but premier Andrews office enjoys unlimited access.

These are not the actions of a transparent and ethical government.

The Victorian government was the only one to sign up to the Chinese Communist Party’s contentious Belt and Road Initiative.

No other state or territory government was reckless enough to sign up to a scheme designed to expand Beijing’s political and economic influence around the globe.

In the end the former federal government used its veto powers to cancel Victoria’s deal but it seems the premier remains enamoured by the Chinese government’s unprecedented monitoring of its citizens.

The government’s Insights Victoria program which acts as a “single source of truth” for public servants is an amateur version of China’s surveillance state.

These latest revelations come as the Andrews government squanders more public money attempting to hide vital data it has been ordered to release by the Victorian Information Commissioner Sven Bluemmel.

One can only hope that Dear Leader doesn’t get any ideas about replicating China’s social credit system.