Shannon Deery: Why some votes don’t trust Daniel Andrews

Once voted the second-most trustworthy Australian political leader, Dan Andrews is fast-losing his cred with voters this state election.

Daniel Andrews might be ahead in all the polls, but on the issue of trust he’s going backwards.

In March 2020, Andrews was voted the second most trustworthy Australian political leader, with Penny Wong taking out the top spot.

According to the same Roy Morgan poll, by March this year Andrews had dropped off the leaderboard.

At the same time, Matthew Guy was voted the 10th most distrusted politician in the country.

But it is Andrews’ slide backwards that is of particular interest given revelations he is now involved in a record fourth corruption probe.

For a government paying $1.10 to win its third term, it has been a horror start to the election campaign.

Being outed as part of yet another corruption probe is not how the campaign machine behind Daniel Andrews would have envisaged things starting.

A cyclist who was hit in a crash with a car driven by Dan Andrew’s wife Catherine is now exploring his legal options. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Not to mention the fact the cyclist hit in a crash with a car driven by Daniel Andrews’ wife Catherine at Blairgowrie in 2013 was now exploring his legal options.

Nasty timing on both counts.

It takes some doing to throw the Labor machine off course.

It’s driven by a slick, formidable engine that when firing on all cylinders is hard to beat.

When it kicked into gear a little over a week ago it was matching or bettering opposition announcements with ease.

Almost as soon as an announcement was made, Labor’s campaign machine had politically neutralised it.

But it can do nothing about the new questions now surrounding the Premier.

And it’s a problem that is of the government’s own making, in a sense.

In the eight years since the Andrews Government came to power it has made secrecy the norm.

And that has encouraged suspicion to cloud much of what the Premier says and does.

Take Victoria’s Freedom of Information laws as an example.

The laws, technically, give members of the public the right to apply for access to information held by Ministers, State Government departments, local councils, and other agencies.

But try actually getting some information out of them.

Since the Andrews Government came to power in 2014 the number of FOIs denied in full has almost doubled from 2.3 per cent to 4 per cent.

Do you trust Dan? In two years he’s dropped from the leaderboard of most trusted Australian political leaders. Picture: David Crosling

However drill down into the numbers a little deeper and the full picture is shown.

Government departments are denying access to a staggering 12 per cent of requests, and granting full access to less than one in three matters.

In the same time, complaints to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) about FOIs have almost tripled, from 243 in 2014-15 to 739 in 2020-21.

The most relied on excuse is that documents are internal working documents and it would be contrary to the public interest for those documents to be released.

The government even uses legal expert Mick Batskos to help keep information secret from Victorians.

A vast amount of taxpayer dollars is wasted in fighting the release of information.

The government has fought the release of secret briefings used to justify sending Victoria into lockdown.

It resisted sharing advice over its playground ban, and was also caught attempting to suppress bombshell secret court rulings involving the private data of Victorians.

It has also fought the release of secret documents over the divisive $125bn Suburban Rail Loop project.

Daniel Andrews is known for batting away questioning with non-answers at press conferences. Picture: Penny Stephens

It is still trying to shield from the public documents relating to the Hotel Quarantine inquiry and iCook Foods saga.

Increasingly OVIC has taken to overturning government decisions, finding in favour of the public interest.

Last month the Herald Sun revealed Victoria’s new public housing operator, Homes Victoria, was under threat with a massive bailout needed to save it from financial collapse.

But the government won’t reveal the extent of the problem.

We have learned that the Premier’s former lawyer used a personal email address to deal with government matters, potentially thwarting public access under FOI and archive laws.

The Premier might hold countless press conferences.

But how many questions does he bat away with non-answers?

How many times have we heard “I’m not here to talk about that,” or “that is not my focus,”?

Of course it is his prerogative to answer questions in any way he chooses.

But Victorians have the right to remain suspicious when the evidence is that the government doesn’t come as close transparency as it likes to think it is.

It is why the latest corruption probe is of such interest.

Andrews has testified as part of the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission’s probe of allegedly corrupt land deals.

He gave evidence at a private hearing as part of IBAC’s Operation Watts which investigated, and found, widespread corruption within the Victorian Labor party.

And he’s refused to say whether he was questioned as part of a probe into his government’s dealings with the United Firefighters Union over the amalgamation of the state’s fire services.

Certainly key players in the Department of Premier and Cabinet were.

With the polls set to open in less than one week, Victorians rightfully have questions over the latest corruption inquiry.

The question of trust could loom large on election day.

Shannon Deery is Herald Sun state politics editor