Hits and misses that shaped Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ legacy
Dan Andrews has quit as Victorian Premier but will leave with a string of controversies as a legacy — from bonk bans to secret China trips and, of course, cancelled Games and record debt.
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Dan Andrews has shockingly quit as Victorian Premier after nearly a decade in the state’s top job — without a bronze statue in his honour.
In a reign marked by controversy and unpopular decisions — but following a thumping win at the last election — he will leave loved by some and loathed by others.
Here are 20 defining Dan decisions that Victorians are set to remember.
Some, like free kinder, TAFE, nursing and secondary teaching degrees, they may thank him for, others, like record state debt, cancelled Commonwealth Games, hotel quarantine, long lockdowns, rings of steel and shut schools, likely not.
1. Record debt
Victoria’s debt is expected to hit $171bn by 2026-27, almost $70,000 for every household.
Victorian taxpayers have also been slugged more than $24bn for consultants, contractors and labour hire fees since Daniel Andrews came to office in 2014.
At the same time public sector spending in departments and administrative offices saw a 17.6 per cent employment spike in 2020-21 alone.
In 2021, cost blowouts on his signature Big Build amounted to almost $6bn for 42 major projects in Victoria, including train station, car parks and rail upgrades.
The spiralling costs are also set to continue after Mr Andrews’ departure with independent analysis warning the first two stages of the Suburban Rail Loop will cost $125bn – well above the $50bn claimed by the government.
2. Cancelled regional Commonwealth Games
The shock announcement in July Premier Andrews was completely cancelling the much-hyped Victorian regional 2026 Commonwealth Games because they were too expensive may be one of state’s highest profile casualties under his nearly 10-year reign. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) was only given eight hours notice about the Victorian government’s sudden backflip on hosting the major sporting event and the decision left regional cities reeling and some elite sportspeople in tears.
The call sent shockwaves across the country and made international news.
In a statement, the CGF said it was “disappointed” it was given hardly any notice.
3. Covid lockdowns, rings of steel, bonk bans
Melburnians spent 267 days in hard lockdown — a total of nearly nine months, beating the next most locked-down city in the world, Buenos Aires, by 22 days. Andrews also locked down 3000 residents in public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne without warning at 4pm on July 4, 2020.
A Melbourne curfew was introduced on August 2, 2020, when 671 new daily cases were reported. Weddings were banned, exercise limited to an hour within 5km of home, and police patrolled. But there was no evidence that such blanketed measures curbed the Covid spread. The evidence was, once again put aside when the Andrews government banned playground play in August, 2021.
It also cut communities in half with its “ring of steel” measures and border closures — some of which were declared with just hours’ notice.
Andrews also, for a period, banned the visiting of intimate partners in what became known as the Dan bonk ban.
But maybe the toughest and cruellest ban of all was on schools, which were shut. The toll of Victorian schools being closed and instead home schooling — for so long — is only now starting to be fully understood.
4. Hotel quarantine disaster
The decision to shun offers from the Australian Defence Force to help at quarantine hotels and instead use private security guards didn’t cost just the $65.7 million recorded in government ledgers. It cost about 800 Victorian lives, 18,374 infections and $12bn ripped from the Victorian economy.
5. Triple-0 crisis
Andrews himself declared there was a triple-0 operator crisis in 2014, but in just under 10 years the system did not improve after Labor won government. For years the system was plagued with delays and funding shortages, and despite the warnings to government nothing effective was done. In 2022 a report linked at least 12 deaths to Victoria’s crisis-addled triple-0 service.
6. Branch stacking allegations
The independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) last year found two former government ministers breached parliamentary codes of conduct.
The pair, who are not alleged to have committed any criminal conduct, misused public funds to fuel a vast branch-stacking operation, the IBAC found.
7. Red Shirts Scandal
The Victorian Labor Party was found to have misused $388,000 in parliamentary allowances to pay political campaign staff during the 2014 election.
The Victorian Ombudsman found 21 past and present Labor MPs breached parliamentary guidelines when staff were diverted to help campaign for members.
The rort was subject to a police investigation spanning more than 12 months, but ultimately no criminal charges were laid by Victoria Police.
8. The bike crash
Daniel Andrews has refused to confirm where he was prior to a now infamous 2013 car crash that left a teenage cyclist severely injured, as contradicting stories saw the matter referred to IBAC. It came after the Herald Sun revealed a witness had claimed that Daniel and Catherine Andrews lunched at a Mornington Peninsula sailing club prior to the crash – and that the claim had been referred to the state’s anti-corruption commission.
The Premier’s phone records from the day of the smash and a recording of his triple-0 emergency call are also being subpoenaed as part of a Supreme Court damages action, it can be revealed.
Mr Andrews and his wife have always said they were returning to their holiday rental after a morning at “the beach” when their Ford Territory collided with bike rider Ryan Meuleman.
But in a sworn statement as part of Supreme Court proceedings against major law firm Slater & Gordon, Jane Crittenden, 66, states: “He (Daniel Andrews) … said to me that they were returning from the Sailing Club where they had been having lunch. I distinctly remember him saying these things.”
Ms Crittenden – a Portsea local, who was first on the crash scene – has raised several issues surrounding the aftermath of the accident, which she has said she feels are unusual.
9. Exxey ‘secret’ trip to China
Victorian taxpayers were left with an $82,000 bill for Daniel Andrews’ secret trade mission to China.
Details of the trip were published in late June this year in accordance with government guidelines that require official reports to be published 60 working days after any ministerial travel. It brings to $517,000 the amount Mr Andrews has spent on seven trips to China since 2015. He has also visited the US, India, Israel and Greece, bringing his total overseas travel spend to $885,000.
Mr Andrews said the purpose of the most recent trip was to promote closer education, trade, and tourism ties, and to strengthen Victoria’s relationship with Jiangsu and Sichuan Provinces.
10. Belt and rail
Andrews remained tight-lipped on the scrapping of the controversial Belt and Road deal with China by the federal government.
Victoria’s Belt and Road deal with China was “without precedent internationally”, according to a damning report which revealed how the Andrews government’s controversial dealings with the Communist Party did little to boost the state’s economy.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s analysis of China’s influence in Australia’s states and territories warned the state government’s actions highlighted the “vulnerability” of Australia’s federal system as Victoria ignored the national interest.
The Belt and Road agreement, linking Victoria to the Chinese government’s trillion-dollar soft power infrastructure initiative, was torn up by the Morrison government in 2021.
11. Mickleham quarantine facility
Victoria’s purpose-built quarantine facility abruptly closed just eight months after opening, sparking denials the half-a-billion dollar project was a “white elephant”. The controversial hub built in Mickleham, 30km north of Melbourne, was purpose built to house international arrivals at the peak of the Covid pandemic. In October last year the facility was repurposed for a short period to house victims of Victoria’s devastating floods, but in January this year police reportedly stumbled on a hidden drug lab in the facility.
12. East West Link
The controversial East West Link has been in talk for years. It was recommended in 2008 to connect the Eastern Freeway to the Western Ring Rd, and was backed by the Baillieu government in 2011. Then Premier Denis Napthine and Transport Minister Terry Mulder signed the contracts after a bid to halt the project was thrown out of the High Court in 2014.
The court case took place as protesters fought for access to the project’s business case in order to uncover “government secrets”.
Andrews promised to tear up the contracts if he won government, and promptly dumped the project in 2015. As Premier, he wasted about $1.2bn already spent on the project.
Meanwhile, Victorian taxpayers were left with a $339m bill after the government struck a deal with the East West Connect consortium to pay for costs incurred during the brief life of the tunnel project.
The payment did not include compensation for any loss of future profits.
The East West Link has been backed by the Liberals and Nationals at four successive federal elections, as well as the past two state elections.
13. Level crossing removal
Demolishing 50 dangerous level crossings was the first big signature policy announced by Mr Andrews, and has been mostly deemed by most as a vote winner, despite controversies like the Cranbourne Pakenham line skyrail and lack of community consultation.
The program was so successful that it’s now been expanded to remove 110 crossing by 2023.
Other infrastructure projects heralded as positive game changers for the city’s landscape include the Metro Rail Tunnel, the West Gate Tunnel,
14. Voluntary euthanasia
Victoria became the first state to legalise voluntary euthanasia after Andrews said his “view had changed” following the death of his father.
15. Free kinder and TAFE
Two of the good and welcome initiatives of the Andrews government. Key promises from Andrews ahead of his thumping election victory last November included kindergarten becoming free for all three and four-year-old children — with a new “pre-prep” structure to be created — and free TAFE courses to also become available to all Victorians, with prospective students able to enrol regardless of their prior skills or qualifications. An extra two million Victorians are eligible under the changes. Cash is also being invested in upgrading existing campuses and funding new TAFE facilities at Sunbury and Melton.
16. Free teaching and nursing degrees
Thousands of prospective nurses and midwives are now able to study at university for free after Andrews made an election promise of free university degrees, with funding covering the cost of undergraduate studies for 10,000 students as part of a $270m boost to the healthcare sector over five years. Students who enrol in nursing or midwifery in 2023 and 2024 will have up to their entire HECS debt of $16500 paid by the state government – provided they commit to working for two years in Victoria’s public health system.
The payments are delivered in two ways: students receive $9000 while they study and, if they commit to the public system, the remaining $7500 will be covered during the time spent working in public hospitals.
A $10,000 scholarship is also be available for thousands of nurses to convert and upgrade their skills from enrolled to registered nurse, and the package will further see full scholarships available for up to 1000 nurses who have left the workforce to rejoin and retrain.
Secondary teaching degrees will also become free under a $229m plan to scale back crippling staff shortages plaguing the education system. Students wanting to take up a career as a high school teacher will get $18,000 for a four-year undergraduate program or $9000 for postgraduate study, if they commit to working at state schools for at least two years.
17. Cheaper public transport
Premier Daniel Andrews delivered his pre election promise to regional Victorians of daily V/Line fares capped at the metropolitan rate of $9.20 for a weekday full fare but the delivery has been less than perfect. More than 500 V/Line services were cancelled, terminated early or did not depart from where they were meant to in July alone this year, causing commuter hell for regional Victorians and making a farce out of the new cheaper fares. The cancelled (cheaper) services continue.
18. Housing
This month the Andrews government released its landmark Housing Statement which the Premier said he was proud would be “the last big reform that I did”. Under the changes Victoria will become the first state in Australia to have an Airbnb tax of 7.5 per cent tax, 44 housing towers will be rebuilt and planning laws overhauled to create faster approvals and social housing quotas for developers.
19. Fire services reform
Between 2014 and 2017 the Andrews Government secretly worked towards splitting the state’s fire services – a move blamed for the falling number of CFA volunteers.
The restructuring – which resulted in the new professional Fire Rescue Victoria force replacing the Metropolitan Fire brigade and splitting off the volunteer CFA force – ended in the CFA board being sacked.
The move took it’s toll on the government too. Then Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett quit the ministry in revolt and the split is now subject to two ongoing inquiries by the state anti-corruption watchdog with the interactions between the powerful United Firefighters Union and the Andrews government being probed.
20. Domestic violence
Under Mr Andrews Australia’s first Royal Commission into Family Violence was carried out, prompting huge changes including harsher sentencing for family violence thugs, mandatory reporting by police, streamlined intervention orders processes, and more than $6.5bn in added funding for new services and support.
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