Andrews admits mistakes, but declares Victoria’s pandemic response a ‘triumph’

Premier Daniel Andrews says his government made mistakes in its handling of COVID-19 but the overall state response and vaccine uptake was a “triumph” that should have prompted political opponents to say “well done”.

In a rare and expansive one-on-one interview to a little-known left-wing podcast, Mr Andrews accused Victorian federal ministers of disloyalty to their own state by “bagging” his government amid lockdowns.

The Premier last month.Credit: Eddie Jim

The Premier claimed his government was doing more to drive up living standards through policy reform than any government since Bob Hawke’s in the 1980s, arguing state governments are now the centre of power in Australia’s frayed federation.

Mr Andrews, who is preparing to seek a third term in a year’s time, has arguably received more media and political criticism during the pandemic than any Australian leader, with Melbourne gaining the title as the most locked-down city in the world.

However, Victoria’s economic and health outcomes have rated better than many comparable jurisdictions around the world, and the Premier said Victorians knew his government had always acted as decisively as it could.

“It’s a triumph in terms of what government in partnership with the community can do,” he said on the Socially Democratic podcast hosted by former Labor campaigner Stephen Donnelly. “We’ve got some people who just can’t find it in themselves to say ‘well done’...

A poster of the Premier behind bars at Saturday’s protest.Credit: Luis Ascui

“I wouldn’t want anyone to think that we regard our pandemic response across the board as having been perfect – of course it wasn’t. There are things that if you could go back and change them, you would.”

Mr Andrews’ admission of missteps did not attract a follow-up question from Mr Donnelly – who ran Labor’s field campaigns as the party’s assistant secretary at the last two elections – so it was not clear which policy decisions Mr Andrews regretted.

Victoria’s pandemic performance has statistically been the worst in Australia, though government responses are difficult to compare and randomness is a key factor in the trajectory of pandemics.

The state has recorded 1896 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 1015 in NSW, according to data from covid19data.com.au. Victoria represents about 25 per cent of Australia’s population but close to 60 per cent of the country’s total COVID-19 cases.

Comparing deaths from the disease that has killed millions globally, Victoria has recorded 1374 compared to NSW’s 630. Much of this discrepancy is due to Victoria’s second wave of cases in 2020 which was sparked by leaks from two quarantine hotels, prompting a judicial inquiry that did not attribute blame for the failings on Mr Andrews or any of his ministers.

Mr Andrews noted in the podcast that Victoria’s lockdown in 2021 could arguably have been avoided if the NSW government had taken swifter action to stem its Delta outbreak.

The Premier fronted press conferences consistently during the health crisis. While he said these were key to communicating public health information, he also revealed the large audiences they attracted that political leaders before the pandemic could only dream of.

“The audiences were just absolutely phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal … They gave me some audience numbers at one point, which is, you know, wonderfully helpful, to know that you’re you know, talking to a million people, live,” he said.

“On more than one occasion, I thought ‘I don’t know what they’re going to think about me by the end of this’, but we’ve just got to push on.”

‘The audiences were just absolutely phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal … you’re talking to a million people, live.’

Daniel Andrews

Stay-at-home orders imposed by Mr Andrews and his interstate counterparts, his government’s vaccine mandates designed to boost inoculation rates to end those orders, and its much-criticised pandemic bill transferring powers from the Chief Health Officer to ministers, have spawned protests around Australia that have been the most heavily attended in Victoria.

Mr Andrews said while some demonstrators had understandable anger and no interest in violence, a lack of fact-based discourse was fracturing society.

He questioned whether some state Coalition MPs, who had met with protesters at several recent rallies, wanted political violence to stem from the anti-government protests.

“We’ve seen some people who were very critical of us standing and sharing a stage, the other side of politics sharing a stage with these people. What is it they want? Do they actually want someone to get hurt?”

The strict state policies fuelled Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recent call for governments to get out of people’s lives, which Mr Andrews said echoed US Republican talking points.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“That Tea Party nonsense, let alone the Trump nonsense, it doesn’t work here,” he said. “I don’t know where [the Morrison government is] at. They have lost their way. I don’t know what they’re for, I don’t know what their agenda for the future is.”

Without naming any of them, Mr Andrews took aim at federal ministers who he said had made “obscene” attacks on Victoria’s pandemic approach. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been a common detractor of Mr Andrews’s COVID-19 response.

“The worst part about it is we’ve had people who are Victorians and would claim to understand Victoria, who’ve got leadership positions within various governments, who’ve not necessarily been faithful to their own state,” he said.

“They thought they were bagging me, they genuinely thought they were bagging me and there would be some sort of political advantage. Turns out they were bagging the people of this state.”

Labor leaders Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam in 2007.Credit: Paul Harris

Many commentators have noted the emergence of state governments as dominant political actors because of their control of public health, but Mr Andrews argues they are the centre of power because of their grip on the major levers of economic and social reform.

While the reform agenda of the 1980s and 1990s was focused on national reforms like trade liberalisation, floating the dollar and tax reform, the 21st-century agenda articulated by the Productivity Commission lies in areas controlled by states: better utilising human capital by improving infrastructure, education, healthcare and skills.

“The big drivers of our standard of living, our quality of life, productivity … they’re all run by the states now,” he said.

“We have more to say about that agenda than any national government that our country’s ever had ... except for that [Hawke Labor] government during the 1980s.”

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