Steve Price: How Victoria may be punished if Daniel Andrews is not re-elected on November 26

Suggesting Victorians vote for Dan Andrews hurts as much as barracking for Collingwood in a Grand Final but it’s a necessary evil. HAVE YOUR SAY

It pains me to point this out, but Victorians should probably vote Daniel Andrews back in as Premier in four weeks.

I know it’s a little like having to support Collingwood in a Grand Final when your team is not playing – it hurts like hell — but seems like the right thing to do at the time.

Premier Andrews is acting during this election campaign like a vacuum cleaner salesman – think daily updates on things you don’t need or want - but he’s our vacuum cleaner salesman.

Ditch him for a Liberal and sit back and watch what Dan’s Socialist Left mate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will do to the great state of Victoria.

It will make the billion dollars plus cuts to projects funded by the former Morrison Government look like a blip on the infrastructure radar.

Let me try and explain this counter intuitive suggestion.

The Albanese Government will rule in Canberra for at least one term — more likely two or more — and the last thing Victorians need is to vote in a Coalition state government because we will be punished if we do.

Labor mates like Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Dan Andrews exchange favours, which is why we should consider staying in their tent. Picture: David Geraghty

Sorry Matthew Guy and team.

As much as I’d like you to punish Daniel Andrews for his completely shambolic handling of Covid with his ego-driven lockdowns and aged care failures, we must think of our future.

Tuesday night’s Budget made it crystal clear federal Labor is happy to use its political muscle to punish non-Labor governments, wherever they are.

Projects developed and funded by the previous Morrison Government had an axe taken to them.

Do Victorians really want to go down that road? Because if we do it will get ugly.

Here’s an example of how that politically-driven funding brutality works. It’s cruel.

Regional towns in NSW are currently under water with the worst flooding in more than 100 years. On Tuesday night, three dam projects agreed to by a former Liberal National government were permanently put on hold.

Locals believe the funding is gone for good.

This is the very definition of political payback, with Labor cancelling $900 million of spending on the water grid, including a new dam – Dungowan — and federal funds to raise dam wall levels at the Wyangala Dam and Sydney’s Warragamba Dam.

Dam funding dumped in the middle of a flood — now that’s brutal.

And Prime Minister Albanese had the hide to turn up to Forbes near one of those dams for a photo opportunity just this week.

Is that what Victoria really want if Dan Andrews gets pushed out at the end of the month? I very much doubt it.

Sure, there were some cuts made to projects in Victoria in Tuesday’s Budget but that seems to me to be largely a smokescreen.

Federal Labor knows Daniel Andrews has an election in four weeks and was careful not to cancel anything in a winnable seat.

And did we hear any fury from the Premier about these axed projects? If we did, I missed it. And this silence is from a Premier, who in the past had accused Canberra of being “miserable”, and likened getting infrastructure funding to “begging” for “foreign aid”.

A state government spokesperson told the Herald Sun this week: “We finally have a genuine partner in Canberra who is focused on delivering the infrastructure and services Victorians need.”

Victorians could pay the price from federal Labor if they don’t vote back Dan Andrews. Picture: Luis Ascui

I guess you would say that when that partner writes out a cheque for $2.2 billion for Daniel Andrews’ vanity project, the Suburban Rail Loop. That overly generous donation proves my point.

Victoria secured more federal funding for transport builds than any other state. I just wonder though if Sydney’s Anthony Albanese or Queensland’s Jim Chalmers even knows where Cheltenham or Box Hill – the first rail loop section costed at $35 billion – even is?

Quite clearly — given this project hasn’t even been assessed by Infrastructure Australia as being viable and would be dumped by a Liberal Coalition government — it was backed with the election in mind.

State Labor wants a third of that $35 billion cost to come from Canberra matching their own $11.8 billion funding promise, but even good mates or genuine partners couldn’t stump up that much cash.

This dangerous practice of back slapping governments of the same political colour with taxpayers’ money on vanity projects should outrage all Australians.

To spend an obscene amount of money on an underground train network that not even Victorians are asking for should anger voters right across Australia.

It seems you can dump a flood-preventing dam wall extension and rip a billion dollars out of Victorian road projects to fund this fantasy and no-one bats an eyelid.

Mates do mates favours obviously, which is why sadly Victorians voting in four weeks’ time probably need to think about staying in the Labor tent.

It comes at the worst possible cost to all Victorians – four more years of Daniel Andrews – and all the baggage that brings, but it’s probably our only option.

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