What now for waylaid pandemic Bill?

The pandemic Bill seemed a done deal, now the government is madly calling crossbenchers shut out of months of secret talks to try and flip a vote.

Just after 10pm on Wednesday, the phone of Herald Sun political reporter Shannon Deery “went mad”.

Friends, political figures and journalists all expressed disbelief.

“People were shocked that someone had got in the way of Dan Andrews,” Deery says. “They were asking: ‘how is this possible?’.”

Since March, the Andrews government had been secretly negotiating on its controversial pandemic management Bill with three crossbenchers in the upper house.

The clandestine hook-ups involved many discussions over many months, despite Andrews since claiming that consultation was a “luxury” in a crisis.

Certainly the government believed consultation with the rest of the crossbenchers, and the opposition, was unnecessary. It believed it had all the support it needed.

But earlier this week, Adem Somyurek, who has rarely been sighted in parliament since he was last year forced out of the Labor Party amid branch stacking allegations, was having different ideas.

Adem Somyurek shocked many with his move to block the pandemic Bill. Picture: David Crosling

Protesters opposing the pandemic Bill camp at state parliament. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Somyurek has been described by colleagues as a lot of things but, one yesterday pointed out, he is at heart a democracy “wonk”.

And despite having just endured a grilling by an anti-corruption commission, Somyurek was earlier this week becoming increasingly preoccupied with the potential abuse of the government’s proposed pandemic powers.

The Herald Sun was told of his concerns and the possibility he might sensationally return to parliament to vote against the Bill.

At that stage, the voting intention of the other eight crossbenchers locked out of the Andrews deal was not known. As they, one by one, voiced their opposition to the laws it occurred to some that the dumped Labor-turned-independent MP could hold the power to effectively halt the Bill.

That became apparent at lunchtime on Wednesday when Somyurek submitted his vaccination status to parliament.

A memo detailing that Somyurek had now met the requirements to return to the house was circulated almost immediately, sending the first round of shockwaves through Victoria’s corridors of power.

Jaclyn Symes hit the phones after the Herald Sun broke the news. Picture: AAP Image

But no one at that stage was sure of his intentions.

Somyurek, talking exclusively to the Herald Sun, explained he felt he had to vote against a Bill which he said could lead to “the tyranny of rule by decree”. At 10pm, the Herald Sun revealed his intentions and the supposedly done deal was publicly undone.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes immediately hit the phones. The government desperately needed to flip a vote.

The eight upper house crossbenchers who had been shut out from months of negotiations were now being regaled as the government’s new best friends.

The government’s sudden shift was not enough to convince anyone overnight and on Thursday senior figures wandered hallways, united in an expression of impotent fury. They succeeded in delaying the vote. But the substance of the Bill appeared to have been dashed for now.