He is the teller of truth, the protector of the people, the antivirus, the great healer. He watches over us children while we sleep. When we transgress, he admonishes us firmly but with love. He is magisterial in his wisdom, he is benevolent to all, he speaks of a day when, provided we behave, he will allow us more liberties.
He is, to quote a certain text “my fortress, my high tower, and my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I trust”.
He bears the weight of the entire state without complaint; he is not wearied by shallow types who question his leadership; he is the navigator who guides us safely through troubled waters. He also holds the world record for the most consecutive, albeit pointless, press conferences.
Everyone but the ignorant would know I speak of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
Under his administration, Victoria, which contains a quarter of the country’s population, has recorded 74 per cent of Australian coronavirus cases and over 90 per cent of deaths. According to Treasury, this will mean the national economy taking a hit of $10-12 billion and the unemployment rate rising to 10 per cent.
But all we hear from the luvvies is that Dan. Is. The. Man.
man. Seemingly forgotten is that the incompetence of the Andrews Government led directly to a second wave. Instead, commentators have tried to distract by pointing out how much better off the situation in Victoria is compared to overseas jurisdictions of similar size. What a great comfort that must be for the families of the dead here.
Here's the verdict of a Nobel Prize winnig scientist. But, hey, why listen to him when you have all those media commentators? https://t.co/pRRONOq7ss
— Paul Barry (@TheRealPBarry) October 19, 2020
Then there is the issue of the hotel quarantine inquiry. Announcing the establishment of this body on July 2, Andrews declared “It is abundantly clear that what has gone on here is completely unacceptable and we need to know exactly what has happened.”
As you might quip, how did that turn out? Almost four months have gone by, and we still do not know who in government decided to use private security firms instead of police and ADF personnel for quarantining overseas arrivals, a decision that resulted in the state’s second wave.
Simian flu and foggy recollection
As to the foggy recollection of most of those who have given evidence at that inquiry, I was reminded of the 2017 sci-fi film War for the Planet of the Apes, in which a simian flu sweeps the globe, killing off most of humanity.
A mutated version of the virus leads to the survivors losing their ability to speak. What an apt analogy that would make for the Victorian cabinet. On a side note it makes for an interesting question: who would you rather had taken charge of quarantine arrangements, the Victorian health department or the chimps? Based on the performance of those who testified, the latter is a no-brainer.
In calling the inquiry, Andrews’ strategy was simple. There was an independent “arm’s length” process underway, he would say when journalists put to him questions about the flaws in the program.
Deflecting their probing he would insist “It’s not appropriate for politicians to sit in judgment of themselves”. It was not only obscurantist: he was trying to buy time, hoping that case numbers would fall.
Called for stonewalling
Clearly inquiry chair Jennifer Coate did not appreciate being used as an excuse for Andrews’ stonewalling. “Unlike court, there is no general restriction or prohibition which would prevent a person from commenting publicly or answering questions to which they know the answers on matters which are the subject of examination by this board of inquiry,” she pronounced on August 5.
Now compare Andrews’ reticence with his response yesterday to a report that Victoria’s stage-four lockdown prevented four critically ill newborn babies — who later died — from being transported from Adelaide to Melbourne to receive lifesaving cardiac surgery.
He rejected the suggestion the problem was at Victoria’s end “I know a bit about the children’s hospital … and I know and understand the quality of care and scope of practices that are run there,” he said.
He may be right. But the fact a coroner is yet to hand down findings did not stop Andrews from sitting in judgment of himself or his health minister.
In 2011, Andrews, then Opposition Leader, was very much about ensuring ministers did not use inquiries as an excuse for refusing to answer questions. “The [police] minister’s tactic around not answering these questions is clearly an abuse of the forms and practices of this house,” he said. “There are no limitations on the minister … If he is not prepared to answer the questions, then he ought to simply say that instead of this nonsense that inquiries are ongoing.” Sound familiar?
Ditto for Andrews’ response to the Napthine Government’s proposed East West Link, the contract for which was signed only a month prior to the November 2014 election. On the Monday after his election, the new Premier-elect was accountability personified, telling ABC’s Fran Kelly “The first priority [is] … the full public release of the business case, the contract and the so-called side deal, all of that will be out in the public domain so that people can know the truth facts about this rushed and botched and all too secretive project …”
Reticence and refusals
Now think back to Labor’s rorting of electoral allowances during the 2014 election campaign. State Ombudsman Deborah Glass later found $387,842 had been misused for campaigning purposes. The Andrews Government spent $1 million in legal fees, all taxpayer-funded, in its unsuccessful attempt to shut down the Ombudsman’s inquiry. When Victoria Police announced in 2018 it would conduct a criminal investigation into the affair, Andrews was asked whether his government would co-operate. “Everybody should co-operate and everybody will,” he said.
Yet all 16 serving Labor MPs named in the red shirts scandal, including a third of the Cabinet, refused to answer police questions. When Andrews was asked the reason for this, he stated it was “completely inappropriate” for him to respond while the matter was “ongoing”. He also refused to respond when asked whether he had instructed MPs not to co-operate with police.
Andrews’ assurance about co-operating with police has about as much credibility as his announcement on March 28 concerning the hotel quarantine program when he declared “It will ensure that we have 100 per cent compliance in terms of that 14-day quarantine period from midnight tonight for all of those coming back into Victoria from overseas.” So much for that.
Interestingly he also stated at that same press conference “Over time ADF may well provide us with some support also”. Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 Report on July 1, he was asked by host Leigh Sales why he had rejected the National Cabinet’s recommendation to use police and ADF personnel for hotel quarantine and instead opt for private security. Although he declined to elaborate, he did not dispute her assertion. Yet he told a Victorian parliamentary committee on August 11 “I don’t believe ADF support was on offer”. Honestly, even if the federal government had resurrected HMAS Melbourne and sent it up the Yarra, Andrews would still maintain he never saw it.
As columnist Janet Albrechtsen noted yesterday, the Andrews acolytes have deliberately conflated criticism of the Premier with politicising the crisis. They similarly misconstrue the motivations of those who hone-in on Andrews’ equivocating at his daily press conferences, an occasion which the government seemingly regards as an end in itself.
Author and former Sunday Age journalist Jill Stark tweeted last month “Dan Andrews really has perfected the art of fronting up each day to give the perception of transparency and accountability but then not actually saying anything”.
Contrast that account with that of the ABC National Medical Reporter Sophie Scott. In a tweet this week that has since been deleted, she wrote in a response to a primary school photo Andrews had posted online of himself. “Who would have thought a young boy like that would have the enormous task you have had to manage,” she wrote. “Thanks for fronting up each day and being present.”
But fronting up each day and being present, whether the occasion is a press conference or an inquiry, means Sweet Fanny Adams if you are not going to offer anything of substance. The subsequent “please explain” requests from the inquiry following discrepancies in the witnesses’ evidence suggests many in government and bureaucracy suffer from a bewildering condition that the coronavirus has left in its wake. Its name? Dan-nesia.
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