Failure on COVID-19 health front will hound Daniel Andrews to the polls

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday. Picture: Getty Images

Victoria is a terrific place to have a hip replacement but not so good in a pandemic.

The big-picture fundamentals about what has gone so wrong have not shifted since the start of the pandemic a year ago.

While Labor for most of the past two decades has pumped tens of billions into the hospital system, insiders argue its latest government has neglected public health teams and health promotion ­responses.

Multiple sources familiar with government decision-making have lamented to The Australian the lack of preparedness for such a large-scale and complex event.

The view is fairly consistent that the hospitals work extremely well, but that not enough attention was focused on longer term potential issues such as the global spread of a virus.

The inquiry into hotel quarantine could not have been more critical when it savaged the way the old department had functioned in 2020 under former health minister Jenny Mikakos.

While most sensible people ­believe there have been improvements in 2021, it is clear that they are not enough to prevent the spread of the virus. This quite clearly justifies the widespread condemnation of the Andrews government.

Despite the latest setback, it seems almost certain the lockdown will end on Wednesday at 11.59pm; it is hard to see, with such low numbers, how maintaining the shutdown can be justified.

While Daniel Andrews on Monday stood firm on the need for the shutdown, the obvious conclusion is that there is a lack of confidence generally in the state’s ability to head off a third wave. The likelihood is that short-term lockdowns will continue as Victoria goes through autumn and winter. Andrews is most unlikely to take a punt on letting infection rates rise at any point given what occurred in 2020. This will clearly be the strategy that Labor adopts.

Andrews presented as a much more relaxed person on Monday but his Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, looked somewhat grumpy. Sutton has gone from spooked to grumpy in a few days.

It can’t be easy having such a large brain and having to turn up to be bludgeoned most days by journalists, but it’s why he gets paid the big dollars — to stop the virus spreading and to inform the community about his strategy and achievements.

One of the more interesting developments over the weekend was the increasing criticism by health experts about the lack of ­infection control in some of the quarantine hotels.

The obvious conclusion is that while health officials have learnt a bit since the last wave, they continue to lag NSW in their ability to control the virus. This is clearly not good enough and will hound the Andrews government all the way to next year’s election.

But Andrews is a numbers man and he will know that the absolute imperative of every non-partisan Victorian is to defeat the virus.

Andrews will be banking that voters have short memories and will be focused on the primary goal of keeping themselves and their families safe.

It’s a simple enough equation in deeply lamentable circumstances.