Backroom Baz: Will the quality of golf courses determine where Dan Andrews moves next?
Daniel Andrews quick exit out of politics and onto the golf course has set tongues wagging over what the former Premier will get up to next. Fortunately he has a good contact at Seek.
Victoria
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It was long rumoured, but in the end Daniel Andrews’ exit was lighting fast. There had been much speculation in this very column, and it was only last week Baz brought the news that a market had opened taking bets on just when the former member for Mulgrave would call it a day, with big money coming in for a 2023 exit.
There were some happy punters out there on Tuesday when Andrews did indeed called time.
It begs the question, what next for the self-confessed workaholic.
He’s updated the bio sections of his social media profiles from Premier to simply “keen golfer.”
Baz has no doubt there will be lots of golf, but after that? Andrews was supposedly sighted queuing up in the US Consulate on September 5.
For business or pleasure, or indeed at all, remains unconfirmed, as does his longstanding hankering for a New York gig in a so-called “Danhattan” transition.
Or might he go to China? Supporting this theory are the confirmed facts that a) Andrews likes golf and b) China has golf courses. His mateships with the Fox family and Eddie McGuire have spawned suggestions of industry-based consultancy work.
Andrews’ networking strengths link him to some of Melbourne’s wealthiest and powerful people.
He is friends with property developer Max Beck, Carlton chairman and former PwC boss Luke Sayers, as well as a founder of Seek, who could match Andrews to jobs which emphasise his strengths.
The big question is whether Andrews chooses to stay in Victoria or move elsewhere. He himself said Victoria was “my home”.
Liked, but lacks likes
New Premier Jacinta Allan will have some catching up to do to match the dizzying heights of her predecessor’s online popularity.
Andrews used hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money to promote himself on social media, amassing a loyal fanbase of more than 1.5 million followers in the process.
In stark contrast Jacinta Allan is nudging 40,000 social media followers.
She’ll have a long way to go if she wants to use the platforms in place of traditional media like Andrews, who used the online platforms as his own personal publishing arm.
As it stands now, Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick has the biggest Twitter following in the Victorian parliament.
Premier Allan’s media team have some work to do.
Off rails but now on track
The short-lived leadership challenge by Ben Carroll, who almost forced a month-long process to elect a new Labor leader this week, may not have been the first tussle with Jacinta Allan in recent weeks.
Baz is told the pair had been involved in a long-running stand off over the launch of new high velocity trains, which had been supposed to be some time ago but was delayed because both Allan, the then transport infrastructure minister, and Carroll, public transport minister, wanted to take the lead on the announcement.
Baz is told Carroll won the tussle.
Still, Allan won the big prize.
They both insist now they’ll be a star team.
And to be fair, sources from their respective factions think they will, indeed, work very well together.
Bitter battle costly
As Liberal-in-exile Moira Deeming’s legal dramas drag on, so too do her financial woes.
Lawyers don’t come cheap, even those engaged on the too good to be true no win, no fee basis. Which explains why Deeming has launched a legal fighting fund appealing for donors to help her clear her name and fight for “sex-based rights, parents’ rights, women’s rights and children’s rights.”
That won’t come cheap. Sources tell Baz the prospect of Deeming settling with Opposition leader John Pesutto are now zero, with the parties at odds over a demand that Deeming be allowed to rejoin the parliamentary team.
But Deeming has vowed not to back down, saying she lost her job, and has been “blackmailed, threatened, bullied, harassed, stalked, vilified and subjected to extreme hate” because of claims she was linked to neo-Nazis.
Overheard by Baz
“It’s time”. Former premier Daniel Andrews borrows the most famous of Labor slogans to call time on his political career.
Guess who
Which senior Labor figure might have accidentally let on that Daniel Andrews was set to call it quits ahead of the formal announcement?
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