Pass the popcorn: Daniel Andrews laps up Liberal horror movie

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture NCA NewsWire/Aaron Francis

Daniel Andrews’ government is gripped by a budget crisis and battling a firestorm over integrity, yet the Premier is sitting back in gold class munching on a jumbo bucket of popcorn.

Thanks to another episode of political self-harm in the Victorian Liberal Party, Andrews is enjoying a leave pass from accountability even as he faces serious and legitimate questions over financial mismanagement and corruption.

As the government is in the final stages of framing what looms as a ‘‘slash and tax’’ budget as it belatedly tries to fix the financial mess it created, Opposition Leader John Pesutto should be landing blow after blow on Labor.

Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Luis Ascui

Victorians are now spending $10 million each and every day just to pay the interest bill on the state’s debt which is climbing to a predicted peak of $165 billion by 2025-26.

WorkCover is a financial basket case, the health system is buckling, getting an ambulance on time is like winning lotto and state taxes and charges are the highest in the nation.

Andrews’ Big Build is looking like a reckless spendathon that will shackle future generations with massive debt as every project suffers cost blowouts; The West Gate Tunnel will cost billions more and will open three years later than promised, the $12 billion Metro rail tunnel has left taxpayers with a blowout approaching $2 billion and as for signature level crossing removal program, who knows what the real cost to the budget of this will end up being? And the Suburban Rail Loop could end up being the biggest financial black hole of them all.

All of the above are directly linked to the decisions of the Premier. But Pesutto can’t land a blow. That’s because he’s too busy punching on with the very Liberals who should be helping him present a credible alternative to Labor in the 2026 election.

Moira Deeming. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Luis Ascui

It’s not too extreme to say that the once powerful Victorian Liberal Party is locked in a civil culture war and facing the real possibility of political extinction.

Andrews is playing his opponents like the bunch of amateurs they are. He knows that the more he embraces trans rights, the more it sparks internal tensions within the Liberal Party, pitting the Pesutto-led ‘‘moderates’’ against the more conservative elements within the party.

Moira Deeming hasn’t even been in parliament for a year, yet her hardline stance on the trans issue has helped bring the leadership of Pesutto to its knees. Pesutto, of course, is the other person who has undermined his leadership through a series of missteps in his failed attempt to force Deeming from the parliamentary party. (It should go without saying, that in politics, if you want to take someone out, you need to succeed, otherwise they will come for you.)

Daniel Andrews knows that the way back to power for the Liberals is through a credible moderate style of politics that holds Labor to account for financial mismanagement and service delivery problems and doesn’t allow itself to engage in internal culture wars. (Think Ted Baillieu, the last Liberal to defeat Labor in Victoria). The Premier also knows the value to Labor of the Victorian Liberal Party lurching to the right.