This was published 11 months ago
Opinion
The premiers who dictated our lives for two years are almost all gone
Alexandra Smith
State Political EditorAnd then there was one ... of the COVID premiers that is.
Just as the nation seems to be moving on post-pandemic, so do the state politicians tasked with managing the unprecedented health crisis. With Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ sensational departure on Tuesday, only Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk and the ACT’s Chief Minister Andrew Barr remain from the national pandemic cabinet.
Main image: NSW Premier Chris Minns. Inset clockwise from top left: Dan Andrews (Victoria), Peter Malinauskas (SA), Mark McGowan (WA), Annastacia Palaszczuk (Queensland) and Andrew Barr (ACT).Credit:
In his budget speech earlier this month, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey was clear about the new dawn facing NSW. “COVID has ended,” Mookhey declared.
With new dawns come new opportunities, and NSW Premier Chris Minns’ rolled-up sleeves suggest, sartorially at least, that he sees the power of the moment. This is his chance to define his forward-facing agenda and not stand in the shadows of long-serving leaders associated with testing times gone by.
Andrews’ resignation is significant for Minns. As the saying goes, three’s a crowd. Minns was very much the third wheel during the high-profile bromance between Daniel Andrews and his political opponent Dominic Perrottet.
By all accounts, Perrottet and Andrews should have been an odd pairing. Perrottet is from the religious Right of the NSW Liberals, Andrews is a factional heavy hitter from Labor’s socialist Left in Victoria. Yet despite being polar opposites in many ways, as a political couple, they worked.
Daniel Andrews and Dominic Perrottet in Albury last year.Credit: Jules Boag
Perrottet and Andrews had big-picture ideas and the stomach to deliver them. It also helped they led the two most populous states at a time that premiers had more political capital to expend thanks to the COVID-19 crisis. Minns, meanwhile, was a little-known opposition leader who took on the job mid-pandemic.
Minns was determined not to offend anyone, even if that meant offering little in terms of policy grunt. He made it his business to be balanced rather than bold. Unlike long-serving premiers Andrews and Palaszczuk, who had undoubtedly forgotten the slog of being in opposition, Minns was trying to drag his party back into government after more than a decade.
At the same time, Perrottet and Andrews were a case study in how opposites attract. Their ideological differences worked for them not against them – they neutralised each other’s political heat. The pair worked together on dealing with Omicron after it ruined the summer of 2021 and then acted in tandem on a policy to provide all children in NSW and Victoria with a full year of education before they start school.
They devised a reform agenda for health to see GPs (managed by the Commonwealth) and hospitals (the responsibility of the states) work much more closely together and Andrews even helpfully backed in Perrottet’s under-fire trade commissioners.
When Andrews was pressed on NSW Labor’s election commitment to abolish senior trade postings on the back of the John Barilaro scandal, he did not back in his party colleagues in NSW. Rather, Andrews welcomed the extra trade exposure that NSW’s exit would give Victoria. It almost seemed like Andrews and Perrottet had cooked up that line together.
But the Perrottet/Andrews bromance is over. Perrottet is no longer premier and as of 5pm Wednesday, when he officially called time on his long political career, neither is Andrews. With Labor’s Mark McGowan gone from Western Australia, that leaves Palaszczuk as the last remaining pandemic premier.
But Palaszczuk, who will notch up nine years in the job in February, is unlikely to be around for much longer. Despite her protestations, there is an expectation she will quit ahead of Queensland’s state election in October next year. And even if she does hang around, the polls are not favouring Labor to hold on to government.
While Andrews and Perrottet were teaming up on key reforms (and standing shoulder to shoulder at times for press conferences) Minns was more aligned to the South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, who led Labor to victory in March 2022. Like Minns, Malinauskas is socially conservative and has long been a party heavyweight in the Labor Right.
Malinauskas had done several hard years in opposition and was a sounding board for Minns during the NSW campaign. While Andrews and Palaszczuk did not cross their borders to help Minns campaign, Malinauskas did.
But while Minns and Malinauskas are the new kids on the block, a South Australian premier will not have the same prominence on the national stage. That role is left to the eastern seaboard states. Minns has a six-month start as premier on Andrews’ replacement Jacinta Allan, who was elected by the Victorian Labor caucus on Wednesday, and unless Palaszczuk surprises everyone and takes Queensland Labor to the election, Minns could command significant power in national cabinet at a crucial time.
Time will tell if he is capable of wielding such power.
Alexandra Smith is the Herald’s state political editor.
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