Coronavirus: That’s another fine mess you’ve got us into, Daniel Andrews

Victoria premier Daniel Andrews.

Victoria’s pandemic nightmare is a consequence of the disorder that has accompanied Daniel Andrews’s leadership of the state. In a modern democracy with universal healthcare, vulnerable populations should not have to suffer inequality of health outcomes.

Yet at a time of crisis, Labor has fallen short of its promise to provide equality in health. Its management of the virus is not a mere bungle but reflects a pattern of arrogant incompetence.

The Victorian populations where COVID-19 found its second wind are concentrated in public housing and battler belt suburbs, demographics that traditionally were associated with Labor voters. It is these groups that Labor is desperately trying to win back. As part of its strategy, the ALP promotes the idea it provides better health outcomes than the Coalition. It takes a strong dose of reality to dispel illusions and the pandemic has delivered it.

From the outset, Victoria’s socialist Labor government has politicised the pandemic and erred on the side of intemperance.

Soon after the virus hit Australia, evidence mounted of the Chinese Communist Party conceal­ing the origins of the pandemic. The CCP downplayed the virus’s threat to humanity while stockpiling essential medical supplies. If the US had done the same, the left would march in the streets for social justice. But Victorian Labor had other ideas.

Tim Pallas set the tone for what would become the most disastrous handling of the crisis by any Australian government to date. The Victorian Treasurer defended the CCP by saying it suspended Australian meat imports because of “language that … has seemed to vilify China”. The language under attack was a request from the federal Coalition government for an independent investigation into the virus’s origins.

It was a reasonable suggestion and clearly in the national interest. By contrast, Labor’s suggestion that it amounted to vilif­i­cation was absurd. You cannot vilify a government that is devotedly dishonest, censorious, violently oppressive, bigoted and a human rights abusing power par excellence. You cannot vilify a totalitarian state. It stands permanently accused.

 

The Andrews government has a track record of living by the dishonourable Labor ethos of whatever it takes. Crises are milked for political gain. Corruption is managed, not eradicated. Systems of governance are reworked to give greater advantages to the ruling faction and the party. What Victor­ian Labor resists is transpar­en­cy and democratic accountability.

Andrews is demonstrating autocratic tendencies, but federal Labor will not hold him to account. On two occasions this year he has resisted federal oversight that would have benefited Victorians but exposed the party to inconvenient scrutiny.

After the heartbreaking bushfire season, Scott Morrison established a royal commission. The aim is to determine how federal, state, territory and local governments should work together in preparation for, response to and recovery from natural disaster events. The commission will investigate appropriate resourcing for future arrangements and consider a funding-based mechanism to improve accountability at all levels of government. The Prime Minister invited state leaders to participate. Andrews refused. Instead he has set up his own investigation, saying the national commission could interfere with an area of his responsibility. But his government shirked its responsibility to keep Victorians safe by failing to manage public land and neglecting to reduce fuel load before the fire season arrived.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NewsWire/David Crosling

As Rachel Baxendale reported in January, the Andrews government had carried out just more than half the fuel reduction burns planned for last year and only a third recommended by the Black Saturday royal ​commission. Despite parliament requiring Andrews to release bushfire fuel load maps by December 11 last year, he refused to make them public.

Labor also rejected the offer of federal assistance to protect Victorians from the risk of COVID-19. The state is in lockdown because the Andrews government rejected the Australian Defence Force offer to secure COVID-19 quarantine facilities.

Instead, Labor insisted on hiring private security firms without a formal tender process. When 30 per cent of new arrivals in quarantine refused virus testing, Andrews said the government could not make them take a test.

 

Yet outgoing federal Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy implored him to do more. State Opposition leader Michael O’Brien said: “If Labor allows infected travellers to leave quarantine simply because they haven’t been tested, that is a clear threat to public health and safety.” He was right. The Andrews government is responsible for the state’s second wave that resulted from its gross incompetence in the management of hotel quarantine. Genomic sequencing show­ed security guards had acquired the virus and transmitted it to their families, some of whom live in multi-generational households.

Federal authorities have been deployed to clean up Labor’s mess. Other states will foot the bill to patrol shared borders with Victoria. What should have been a case of prevention by Australian Federal Police managed quarantine is a health and economic disaster requiring billions of taxpayer funding.

Every state will have outbreaks, but the Victorian example shows that in the context of national disasters such as bushfires and pandemics, government arrogance and incompetence are a dangerous combination. At the time of writing, there were 1931 active cases in Victoria and 238 new cases. The second wave appears to have emerged in areas that have higher non-English speaking background populations.

Non-government organisations have raised the alarm about the elevated risk of the virus spreading among groups that cannot speak basic English and therefore cannot understand public health messages. In April, the Multicultural CEO Network signed an open letter to Andrews asking for increased funding as well as dedicated “ethno-specific” money for migrant groups. Yet when the Coalition tried to reform citizenship rules to introduce a higher standard for English proficiency, Labor compared it the White Australia policy.

In the absence of a vaccine, COVID-19 will remain a threat to our health and prosperity. If governments are to be held accountable for recklessly endangering Australians’ lives, hitting politicians in the hip pocket would be a good start.