Backroom Baz: Daniel Andrews mask on or mask off picture ops

Deciphering mask advice is hard enough without the now you see it, now you don’t public appearances of Premier Daniel Andrews.

Deciphering advice about when Victorians should wear a mask sometimes feels like cracking the Da Vinci code. 

Especially when Dan Andrews keeps chopping and changing on his “socials”. 

A few weeks ago Dan was pictured on Instagram with a snug-fitting N95 – which incidentally looked like it was doing permanent damage to one of his ears – at an early learning centre, spruiking free kinder plans. 

More recently he was snapped maskless while leaning in close to a primary school child, who the Premier points out, has cerebral palsy. 

To mask or not to mask: Daniel Andrews has done both. Picture: David Crosling

The pile-on was swift for this non-mask shot.

Social media sharks were quick to seize on the image, with some saying he should be covering his gob and others pointing to a lack of mask mandates in schools.

According to the Department of Health, mask wearing is “strongly recommended if you are indoors in a public space or outside in a crowded place” and is mandatory on public transport, in taxis and rideshares, planes, and hospitals and care facilities. 

While Baz would love to delve into this further it’s probably best to defer to Brett Sutton. He’s still around, right? 

Meanwhile, mask mandates on flights in Australia could come under review at a meeting of the national cabinet this week.

Masks are currently not required in Australian airports but are still mandatory on domestic and inbound international flights.

Going loopy

The Suburban Rail Loop has dominated the airwaves for the past fortnight, with the state opposition promising to shelve the project if elected to government in November.

The Liberals’ transport infrastructure spokesman Matt Bach was on ABC Mornings on Thursday to explain how the Liberals would reallocate money to health, including funding a new children’s hospital in Werribee. 

Matthew Bach might be confused about what SRL is but he knows he doesn’t want it. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Host Virginia Trioli wanted to drill down into the figures, quizzing Bach on how much money would actually be available given the $34.5bn budget of the SRL’s first stage wasn’t all being spent at once. 

Her fears that listeners were being “bamboozled” by different figures weren’t helped when Bach started to refer to the project as a road. 

“We will take … every single cent of state government money, for that road, and put that into the health system,” he said, shortly after referring to the cost “to build this road” would be $34.5bn. 

It certainly brings new meaning to the term political railroading. 

Baby news

Baz can’t go past a baby pic. And he was tickled pink to see this one pop up from Labor Senator Jana Stewart, who welcomed cuddly little bundle, Ari. Congrats, Senator.

Jana Stewart and baby Ari.

Reeling in a $2000 catch

Anyone who’s seen Nationals member for Gippsland East Tim Bull hobbling about Spring St would be forgiven for thinking he can’t catch a break at the moment, following a round of surgery that gifted him a lengthy recovery period.

When it comes to fish however, Bully can catch ‘em. 

And that’s exactly what he did this month, reeling in a $2000 beauty as part of Victoria’s Golden Tag fishing competition. 

Tim Bull with his prized catch.

Bull’s not so lucky on land though.

It was Bully who suggested the competition to Minister Jaala Pulford after the 2019/20 bushfires to stimulate tourism to the Gippsland region. 

“I was delighted she agreed, but I didn’t think I would be catching one – so there you go, it happened two weeks ago at Tamboon Inlet,” he told Baz. 

“For those wondering, the $2000 will be donated to the Arthur Grassby Scholarship that sends local Year 11 students to walk in the footsteps of our East Gippsland Kokoda veterans – after a little cut is given to my skipper for the day and good mate, Scott Davidson, who took me out, crutches and all after my knee replacement to give me a break from the boredom of rehab.”

Dumplings for votes

Speaking from personal experience, Baz knows the best way to someone’s heart is through their stomach. 

This must also be the philosophy of John Pesutto as he seeks to claw back his seat of Hawthorn, with the Liberal candidate hosting a dumpling dinner for the young folk of his electorate. 

Spritely young constituents were invited via text to meet with Pesutto for free dumplings, drinks and “casual environment with other 18-24 year olds in our area to discuss any issues or concerns you might have”. 

Sadly Baz is well, well over this age range and didn’t receive an invitation or get the chance to attend.

There was, however, one slight hitch with the plan. The person who passed the text on to this column actually lives in Burwood.

Dinner for none

Spare a thought for what would have been one of the most controversial events of the year, a dinner with Bernie Finn and Sam Newman. 

The pair, who are no stranger to sparking a social media backlash, were expected to dazzle the crowd at an event at the Luxor Function Centre in Sydenham. 

There’s no doubt the ticketed event would have generated a headline or two but appears to have been cancelled at the last minute. 

Whether this was because of protests planned from anti-Finn advocates is unclear. 

Guess who?

Which MP almost dropped the ball, quite literally, at an early morning function?