Could Lindsay Fox be driving force behind Daniel Andrews next move?
While Lindsay Fox may have voted Liberal in the past, rumours are swirling that Daniel Andrews may soon go to work for the trucking magnate.
Victoria
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When a TV microphone was put in front of Lindsay Fox at the height of harsh coronavirus lockdown in October, no one expected him to talk about the premier’s balls.
At the time most of the business community was going feral about Government’s never ending quest to quash COVID-19 cases which was crushing the state’s economy.
The 83-year old trucking billionaire was having none of it.
“Daniel Andrews has had the balls to carry out all the things that he said he was going to do.
Now anyone else would have cracked and weakened a long time ago,” he said.
“I’m not Labor, I’m not Liberal, I’m Australian. And in the interests of our whole community I can’t believe that people are slinging and slamming somebody who is trying to do the right thing and has got the courage of his convictions.”
It’s not the first time Fox has used the line to claim he is above politics. While he may have voted Liberal in the past, the view of late is that the founder of the Linfox logistics empire has returned to his Labor roots.
It wasn’t the first time Andrews has had a billionaire there for him when he needed one either. In the middle of the 2014 state election campaign that made him premier, the then Opposition Leader was given an unexpected endorsement.
A week before polling day, the Labor leader visited the Macedon property of Crown Casino founder Lloyd Williams to be pictured with his Melbourne Cup runner Fawkner. With his hand on the Labor leader’s shoulder, Williams passed on some good news in front of a Channel 10 news crew.
“You should probably know I am the executive of the Packer estate, and James is going to kick every goal he can for you,” he said.
Packer later denied he had authorised the intervention and said he was staying out of the fight.
Liberals didn’t buy it. They knew that behind the scenes the Napthine government’s relationship with Packer had been toxic ever since it had attempted to raise taxes on the turnover of its poker machines.
Labor insiders say Andrews had leapt to take advantage of the situation with Crown’s proprietor.
Soon after he became Labor leader in late 2010, he went out of his way to ingratiate himself with the top end of town.
Early contacts were made with logistics kings Fox and Toll Group’s Paul Little. They struck up a good rapport, and kept in touch — including to discuss their whiskies of choice over the years.
Andrews was a presence at Fox’s virtual birthday held earlier this year amid the first coronavirus wave. Throughout the years he has attended numerous Fox family celebrations.
When asked if his invitation list would change in coming years, the patriarch answered “my friends are my friends”.
How close are the pair? Opinions vary. A source close to Fox says they’re not “best mates” but have mutual respect and “get on very well”.
“Daniel reached out to Lindsay when Opposition Leader, getting a feel for what was happening in trucking shows what is happening with the economy,” the insider said.
“It’s a relationship that’s grown over 10 years.”
The comments about Dan’s leadership weren’t surprising — apart from the mention of balls — because Fox is “not into fairweathered friends”.
“He might dig in harder when someone’s going through a rough patch,” one observer said.
The Fox intervention in October might explain where rumours of a post-politics job for Dan stemmed, according to several insiders.
But ministers in the Andrews government say the real driver is speculation about how long the Premier intends to hang around.
Some in Spring Street believe that prior to the pandemic, Andrews was preparing to make an exit before the next election.
That talk increased during the lockdown crisis but as things have begun to return to normal, the view is the Premier has his mojo back.
“He’s telling people he’s staying on,” one minister said.
Some insiders say his links to big industry players are all about post-politics employment. Others think that is to misunderstand the man.
“He knows he’s useful to these people as long as he’s premier. He likes being treated as an equal. That goes the moment you leave office,” one Spring Street insider said.
Others think his consistently pro-China stance could stand him in good stead when he leaves office.
Just as his relationship with Fox and Packer predates his arrival at 1 Treasury Place, Andrews spent a lot of time cultivating some the richest Chinese-Australians while he was Opposition Leader.
“He was always up in Sydney with (former adviser) Mike Yang meeting people,” said one senior NSW Labor figure.
Some think Steve Bracks would provide a model for what Dan does next. Bracks said one of Andrews’s strengths had been to consult widely with business when in opposition and in government.
But he brushed aside the potential of a Dan-less Labor Party.
“I am absolutely certain he will stay the full term and fight the next election and hopefully exceed my record of three terms,” he said. “I can see no reason why he wouldn’t.”