Now look who’s playing politics with COVID-19

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Ian Currie

For self-awareness, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews could well reflect on his choice of words in Monday’s unwarranted and extraordinary outburst against Josh Frydenberg.

“It’s all about the politics with this bloke,” said Andrews. Clearly keeping politics out of it, the Labor Premier said the federal Treasurer was “not a leader, he’s just a Liberal”.

And in his view, Mr Frydenberg, who lives in Melbourne and is responsible for JobKeeper and other measures that sustain Victoria’s feeble economic heartbeat, was “not for Victoria”.

These are the words of frustration from a man who fears losing control.

Having failed to fully deliver on his promise of a week ago to ease restrictions and get Victoria back to business, Mr Andrews has instead resorted to distraction, victimhood and partisan divide. He laments that opponents cannot appreciate the nuance of Victoria health modelling under which very low infection rates do not mean that things are safe.

The Premier’s histrionic rebuke of visiting New Zealanders, who burst Victoria’s bubble, may have touched a xenophobic nerve in the electorate but it has been based on utter confusion. It should not have been news to Mr Andrews but Victoria’s health department website says the state’s borders are open to New Zealanders who travel via NSW. “If you are travelling from NZ and have passed all relevant immigration and biosecurity requirements as established by the federal government, NSW government and Northern Territory government, then you are able to travel to Victoria,” has been the official Victorian government position.

For the cameras, Mr Andrews has been insisting that he has more important things to do than to personally supervise unwanted guests from across the ditch — proof he considers himself a one-man band.

Mr Frydenberg is far from a lone voice in criticising Mr Andrews’s convoluted and overly cautious approach to easing COVID-19 restrictions. Commonwealth Bank chief Matt Comyn joined a chorus of business leaders on Monday urging Victoria to accelerate out of lockdown, warning of a “huge impact” to small business. All of the major business groups have given a similar appraisal.

Instead, Mr Andrews has outlined an overly bureaucratic, noodle nation of regulatory changes that on analysis amounts to not very much at all.

The big take-out is that business remains closed and people can travel further from home, but there will be little to do when they arrive at their destinations. Distance restrictions remain in place to stop people travelling to popular destinations along the Mornington Peninsula and city-dwellers are banned from visiting their rural getaway properties.

The weekend’s AFL grand final — the first time that two Victorian teams will contest the flag in almost a decade — must be celebrated at home, without friends. Small business in Melbourne has been left to whistle, and wither. Rural Victorians have fared marginally better but remain heavily regulated.

Federal politicians and business leaders are right to pressure Mr Andrews to allow Victoria to move more quickly out of lockdown. Bringing Victoria out of the deep freeze will be crucial to Deloitte Access Economics’ estimates of a strong national recovery from the health crisis.

Behind Mr Andrews’s words of concern are perverse actions that sit at stark odds with his claims of not being political. There are clear winners and losers in the Andrews COVID-19 roadmap and they align with the self-interest of the Victorian ALP.

As John Ferguson has written, Victorian Labor owes its electoral success in large measure to its ability to win key marginal seats that are a focus of the government’s “ring of steel” approach to combating COVID-19.

Eight non-metropolitan Labor seats are protected by the measures that prohibit city residents travelling to rural areas. Preserving the lockdown protects both the rural areas and the Victorian ALP’s electoral interests.

As for business, Ferguson writes that it has never been a favourite of the Andrews government, which has relied for support on spending programs that reward sectional interests.

Andrews’s focus is on his target supporters: public servants, unions, tradies, insecure workers, welfare recipients and construction. His disconnection from the private sector is shown by his advice to struggling small business owners that they should ask the government for help.

Rather than rebuilding momentum in the private sector, Mr Andrews is pinning his hopes on an “unprecedented” surge in government spending in the upcoming state budget. This is the real divide between what is happening in NSW, where business is open and the economy is regaining strength, and Victoria, where lockdowns continue despite the now similar numbers of COVID-19 cases.