Locked-down Victorians asked to score Dan Andrews’ Covid-19 messages

Daniel Andrews’ political strategist conducted language surveys that tested inspirational messages with Victorians as the state battled the pandemic.

Similar language used in the five messages tested by QDOS was often deployed by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews before and after the survey was conducted. Picture: AAP

Daniel Andrews’ political strategist conducted language surveys that tested inspirational messages with Victorians as the state battled the coronavirus pandemic.

Department of Premier and Cabinet documents reveal that in December 2020, as Melbourne emerged from the 112-day lockdown, a major community survey asking people to score key messages was ordered.

The documents — released to The Australian under Freedom of Information laws — show that the survey conducted by QDOS asked Victorians to score five key messages from one to five.

The copy of the online survey reveals that Victorians asked if they ‘‘agree or disagree’’ with the statements, on a scale with one being ‘‘strongly disagree’’ to five being ‘‘strongly agree’’.

Similar language used in the five messages tested by QDOS was often deployed by the Premier before and after the survey was conducted, particularly drawing on sentiment around pride and unity as the community confronted the pandemic and lockdowns.

The December 2020 tracking survey tested the following phrases:

VICTORIANS lived through the psychological impacts of lockdown together and understand each other’s experiences.

ACHIEVING over four weeks of zero coronavirus cases after a long period of lockdown has brought Victorians together and made us proud of our community.

HAVING experienced a full-blown Covid-19 outbreak, Victorians now understand the nature of the threat and share a common sense of confidence in our ability to respond effectively if the threat re-emerges.

DESPITE a long period of restrictions and separation from family and friends, Victorians have emerged with an optimistic outlook for the year ahead.

I FEEL proud that Victorians rallied together to help slow the spread of coronavirus and protect our essential workers.

The results of the online survey were not released to The Australian among hundreds of pages of documents and emails between the DPC and QDOS exchanged between November 2019 to May 2021.

Mr Andrews regularly drew on messaging around pride and unity during the marathon second-wave lockdown in 2020, during which more than 800 Victorians died of coronavirus, and throughout subsequent outbreaks and lockdowns in 2021. Among Mr Andrews’ phrases were ‘‘Victorians have given a lot and I’m so proud of every single one of them’’ and ‘‘we’re all in this together’’.

The December 2020 survey also asked Victorians to score the government’s handling of quarantine hotels — where coronavirus leaks started, triggering the second wave — from zero to 10.

Victorians were asked to rate the government’s performance in terms of ‘‘ensuring Victoria’s hotel quarantine has the appropriate safeguards in place to minimise the chance of coronavirus outbreaks in the community’’.

Whether the government had acted ‘‘quickly in response to the coronavirus outbreaks’’ was also among the questions asked.

And Victorians were also asked if they thought the easing of lockdown restrictions had been much too slow, too slow, about right, too fast or much too fast.

The message testing provides further evidence that while the government always claimed its pandemic response was based on health advice, political and strategic intelligence from the secretive QDOS monitoring program helped inform the decisions.

The Australian revealed last week that QDOS ‘‘cabinet in confidence’’ briefing notes during the 112-day lockdown revealed that the program involved testing the premier’s personal popularity in focus groups.

QDOS, owned and operated by veteran Labor and Andrews’ political strategist John Armitage, has been paid more than $2m in taxpayer funds since 2016 to monitor Victorians’ views.

Traditionally, government tracking surveys of the public are controlled by the public service, but the documents have revealed the Premier’s Private Office (PPO) and controlled much of the program.

Senior members of the PPO were also invited to watch live video and recordings of the focus groups run by QDOS.