Shannon Deery: Liberals have bigger problems than Michael O’Brien
Many consider Michael O’Brien a dead man walking — but the Liberals have bigger problems than who’s steering their ship.
Opinion
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There’s a change in the air around Spring Street.
For the first time since 2014 the government is navigating its own course without Premier Daniel Andrews steering the ship.
True, he’s only on the other end of a phone, and you can bet nothing of substance is being done without his say-so.
In 19 years in parliament, Andrews has missed less than a handful of sitting days, and only then for premier’s conferences and official overseas travel.
To be in parliament last week was to get a glimpse of a post-Dan world. And it’s fair to say it looks a little different.
It would be wrong to say the team looked lost without him. Compared to the team opposite, Labor is still far more slick and well oiled than the Opposition’s machine.
But there certainly seemed to be less cohesion.
At one point one senior MP was seen mouthing “what would Dan say?”
It was said in jest, but it’s a reminder who really runs the show.
And that will have to change at some point.
It has long been rumoured Andrews was keen to hang up his boots, but mid-pandemic declared he’d go to the 2022 election and beyond.
Inevitably his own personal health crisis has people wondering whether it will fast track his exit from politics.
Acting Premier James Merlino has been given his best shot yet to show what he can do when in charge. As has Andrews’ long-touted preferred successor, Jacinta Allan, who appears to run the parliamentary show.
For the first time their fellow MPs can sit back and watch on as they each, in their very different styles, show what they’ve got.
Just like both of them, Opposition leader Michael O’Brien has also been given a shot to show what he’s made of.
After winning the spill that wasn’t, there was a noticeable difference in O’Brien’s attitude in parliament last week.
He’s heeded the message loud and clear, and knows he needs to toughen up and start holding the government to account with force.
There is palpable anger over his inability to expose the cracks in Labor over its blundering of aspects of its coronavirus response, specifically the hotel quarantine debacle.
His detractors say he has instead exposed a crack in his leadership ability — especially as it shouldn’t have taken much to get voters on board.
For six months the Victorian government has rated lower than every other state government for its pandemic management.
Of course there are bigger problems with the Liberal Party than who’s steering their ship.
The expectations on O’Brien in the 2½ years since he was elevated to leader have been too high.
Not only did he take over off the back of one of the worst election defeats in the party’s history, he’s been tasked with trying to get the team back in the game in the middle of a pandemic — while his party secretly plot to destroy him.
Jeff Kennett spent the best part of a decade as opposition leader before leading the party to election victory in 1992.
And he was one of just four Liberal premiers to achieve the feat of winning government from opposition after Thomas Hollway in 1947, Henry Bolte in 1955 and before Ted Baillieu in 2010.
The expectation O’Brien could turn things around in such a short time is something that hasn’t been done.
Many in the party still consider him a dead man walking, with other challengers quietly waiting in the wings.
They all know that Oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them.
But that requires an Opposition that presents as a viable alternative, ready to govern with both the right leadership and policy frameworks in place.
None of that is the sole task of the party leader, but nevertheless O’Brien has his work cut out for him.
AND ANOTHER THING
Surely it’s time international flights are allowed to return to Melbourne.
It’s been more than a month since the flights were stopped, virtually bringing to a halt the state’s hotel quarantine program.
The “gold standard” quarantine system is estimated to be costing $1m a day to run.
But that’s not the only reason it needs to be brought back online.
About 10,000 Victorians remain stranded overseas, and the closure of our international borders makes it that much harder for them to come home.
Victoria has gone almost a month without COVID-19 being transmitted through the community.
More than likely, its not here.
Of course there is a danger that international travellers will bring it in.
But the rebooted hotel quarantine system proved that it can work.
And it must be given the chance to do it again.
We’ve opened up, footy’s back, and for most, life is almost starting to resemble that of the pre-COVID.
And as much as we’d love to protect that at all costs, we equally can’t shut ourselves off to the world forever.
— Shannon Deery is Herald Sun state politics editor
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