Opposition Leader to make bid to oust Daniel Andrews
Premier Daniel Andrews says a Liberal plot to oust him with a vote of no confidence is just cheap politics. But Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien claims he has community support as website detailing the plan crashes.
Victoria
Don't miss out on the headlines from Victoria. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A move to oust Daniel Andrews in a vote of no confidence has been brushed off as “cheap politics” by the Premier.
Responding to the announcement by Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien that the motion would be put to parliament in October, Mr Andrews said “cheap politics is no vaccine against the virus and that’s all I will say about him.”
It came as a website set up by the Victorian Liberal Party detailing the plan, crashed on Thursday with thousands of people trying to view the information online.
Mr O’Brien said there was huge support for the move among the community.
“If you look at the hotel quarantine debacle, if you look at the lies and the cover ups debts, the destructions of jobs and businesses … Daniel Andrews has given us that,” he said.
The motion will be introduced by and put to a vote of lower house MPs.
Mr O’Brien said the government had botched its handling of the pandemic, particularly with and contact tracing failures which sparked Victoria’s deadly second wave.
He said Mr Andrews had lost the support of Victorians.
He said controversy over claims about ADF support on offer for Victoria, the forced closure of thousands of businesses and Melbourne’s public housing lockdown were among a suite of other issues of concern.
“Victoria deserves the chance for a fresh start,” he said.
“Every Labor MP will have to decide whether they will vote to protect the jobs of their communities or the job of the Premier.
“A no-confidence motion is not a decision made lightly, but increasingly frustrated Victorians are telling us loud and clear that Andrews must go.”
With Labor holding a commanding 11-seat majority in the house, the motion will almost definitely be voted down.
But if successful, the assembly would have eight days to pass a motion of confidence before the house was dissolved.
Mr O’Brien said the motion was a chance for every MP in the lower house to decide whether Mr Andrews deserved to continue in office.
It is the one shot the Opposition will have to move such a motion before the 2022 state election, with a limit of one no-confidence motion each parliamentary term.
The Opposition failed in a no-confidence motion against the government in the months leading up to the 2018 election.
The motion was moved by then opposition leader Matthew Guy over the misuse of taxpayer money in Labor’s rorts-for-votes scandal.
The motion was lost 49 to 33.
MORE NEWS
TWO HOT SPOTS EMERGE AS SUBURBS BECOME COVID FREE