Brett Sutton had a very difficult job and he didn’t do it well enough.
He makes a strange choice as Victorian of the Year, appointed by a group that knows its way around Melbourne but not necessarily its way around Melbourne’s thinking.
While a lot of criticism levelled at Sutton was excessive, he failed the Victorian community by being so extreme in his restrictions.
In turn, the Victorian government failed the electorate by not calling out the nonsense of closed playgrounds, all night curfews and the like.
I, for one, strongly supported the government following national cabinet, prime ministerial and mainstream health advice, particulary before sufficient vaccinations were made available and the globe slowly started heading in the right direction.
Restricting movement worked.
However, it’s a poor legacy that Melbourne became one of the world’s most locked down cities, damaging the community spirit and exacerbating the alarm that was coursing through every street.
It’s ironic that Gladys Berejiklian was found to be corrupt this week; millions of Victorians would have killed for the NSW experience during 2020.
During 2020, when the Victorian government dropped the Covid-19 ball under incredible pressure, there were informal discussions about whether or not Sutton should be removed as Chief Health Officer.
The government conclusion was that it would be political suicide to jetison the bloke in charge of the pandemic response.
The chief attribute he brought to the table, according to people who worked closely with him, was a detached calm, even at the height of the response.
This goes some way towards explaining why Sutton was held to be so popular among parts of the community. Principally, it seems, older women who warmed to his press conference manner.
It speaks volumes that when Sutton recently announced he was moving on as CHO, Dan Andrews was not by his side.
Andrews understands the optics. The people who chose Sutton to be Victorian of the Year don’t.
Sutton was not a bad person, but he was the wrong bloke for the pandemic job.
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