Course correction for Dan Andrews

Our special Newspoll on Tuesday showed a dive in popularity for Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. His net satisfaction rating has fallen from 58 per cent in April to 20 per cent last week. And the share of those who believe he has handled the coronavirus badly has jumped from 11 per cent to 36 per cent. This is not surprising. His administration has made serious errors; on Tuesday there were 374 new cases of COVID-19. The Newspoll result is worrying, not so much in a traditional political sense for Mr Andrews but as a mark of the fragility of the confidence in effective leadership necessary during a crisis that imperils lives and livelihoods. The pandemic is a severe test of a government’s basic duty to protect citizens, and not just in Victoria. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has acknowledged the risks facing NSW with its own infection clusters and said, understandably, that she felt “stressed and worried” about the outlook.

In April, Mr Andrews was among premiers recording remarkably high levels of bipartisan political support in Newspoll. At its best, the national cabinet symbolises this cross-party spirit of practical co-operation to tackle an emergency. People seem to be thinking more as citizens than voters; many Victorians not fond of Labor have wished their Premier success in grappling with a rapidly unfolding and uncertain crisis. Australians realise their leaders are having to make difficult decisions under great pressure. But this attenuation of tribal hostilities comes with a caveat: governments are expected to be competent, clear and candid, and to not play politics. High levels of trust entail high expectations. It is also true that policymakers can do only so much if citizens lack common sense, goodwill and responsibility.

Tuesday’s Newspoll is a danger sign for Mr Andrews. It represents understandable popular dismay with a series of missteps. These have a common theme: big-stick talk from the Premier with erratic enforcement and, to some eyes, signs of political motives distorting what should be pragmatic decisions. There was lax contact tracing with the Cedar Meats infection outbreak. The excuse of privacy was odd coming from a government that had tried to shame separated lovers into staying home alone. In the same way, the government’s golf ban was hard to reconcile with Mr Andrews’s tepid attempt to prevent last month’s Black Lives Matter rally from making a mockery of months of public compliance with social distancing. Then there was the backflip on help from the Australian Defence Force, an issue allied with a wider failing in thorough and timely contact tracing. And potentially the most serious blunder was entrusting hotel quarantine to private security firms without proper oversight by police or military personnel. That’s quite a catalogue of shortcomings, even allowing for the difficulty of the collective effort to be orchestrated by government, plus some sheer bad luck.

So, it’s fair enough that Mr Andrews pays a political price, but it is far more important to get Victoria’s virus outbreak under control. The risk is that the understandably angry reaction to his stumbles morphs into hyperpartisan politics that distracts from more effective coronavirus policy.

Of course, the opposition and media must continue to hold government accountable through tough yet fair scrutiny. But it is in everybody’s interests that Mr Andrews rises to the challenge that he faces as the elected leader. This is not the time for opportunistic score-settling by his enemies, and the attempt by his more ardent supporters to portray any criticism of the Premier as fake news is equally misplaced. We need to concentrate efforts on fending off the pandemic, especially now when people are weary of the social strain.

Scott Morrison has tried to avoid taking potshots at Mr Andrews, and this is because Victorians need our help right now, and Australia needs Victoria to prevail against the coronavirus. An explosion of cases in any state, especially in the populous southeast, is a potential threat beyond its borders. And deeper economic damage from lockdown in Victoria would add only more misery to the national accounts. It’s not an empty slogan to say we’re all in this together.