Coronavirus: I’m no Manchurian candidate, says Daniel Andrews

Daniel Andrews has dismissed any link between his $2m spin doctor and his own key phrases during Victoria’s virus pandemic.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews gives his daily update on the COVID pandemic. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Daniel Andrews has declared he’s no “Manchurian candidate” as he dismissed any link between his $2m spin doctor and his own key phrases during Victoria’s deadly coronavirus pandemic.

While describing QDOS’s work as important and revealing his reports had been classified as cabinet-in-confidence documents, and therefore would never be released publicly, the Victorian Premier said the firm played no role in developing the language he used during the coronavirus.

QDOS, run by veteran Labor pollster and strategist John Armitage, has been employed by the Premier’s Department for six years to conduct a program monitoring the views of Victorians, pocketing $2m in taxpayers funds.

Labor strategist John Armitage. Picture: Supplied

As well as claiming it can help shape public opinion, change public behaviour and win elections, QDOS says it uses social research to “convert ... into accessible and persuasive language”.

Mr Andrews has developed an arsenal of straight-talking phrases he’s repeatedly used during the pandemic to help his message cut through, including his now-­famous appeal not to “get on the beers”.

Many of his phrases revolve around his pride in the community, a shared responsibility to get tested and a need to follow rules.

Asked whether QDOS and Mr Armitage had been involved in crafting his message during the pandemic, Mr Andrews said: “No. I don’t have people craft my ­message.

“I am here every day to give you my message which I craft, and it’s usually, in fact it’s exclusively, based on the facts and me being as frank and as honest … I would have thought you all knew me well enough to know that I speak the way I speak and I’m not directed and crafted by anyone. And that might be to my detriment from time to time, but seriously ...”

Asked whether any of Mr Armitage’s research involved recommendations on language for him to use in person or online, Mr Andrews said: “I think I’ve just answered that. If you want to make me out to be some sort of Manchurian (puppet) candidate, I am not that.

“The answer is no. I stand up here every day and I speak to you as someone who’s been chosen twice by the Victorian community, and because I’ve been who I am and lead the way I believe leaders should lead, but I’m not crafted or scripted.

“I get on and do the job as best I can and people can make their own judgments about that. But I think it is very clear that the ­answer to your question is no.”

One key service QDOS offers clients is advice on developing communications strategies and language to deliver an outcome.

On its website, it tells its clients “communications that work have some common themes: everyday language — no jargon and write it like you’re speaking to a friend”.

QDOS stresses four further points on successful ­communication:

• Relevance — make sure your point connects with their lives

• Advocacy — be clear about whose side you’re on (or against)

• Values — your values are your message, the facts are just the support act

• Framing — good framing means getting people to look at issues through your values prism.

The Australian revealed on Thursday that QDOS, which boasts that “public opinion is a fluid thing that we can squeeze, pump and stir”, was handed a $1.1m contract in December last year without a competitive tender process. QDOS was also paid $786,555 to conduct research for Mr ­Andrews’s department between 2016 and 2018.

Asked what taxpayers had got for almost $2m, why his office had refused a request for details of the work performed, and whether he agreed with the “squeeze and pump” claim on the QDOS website, Mr Andrews said he would not comment on “what is on a website that I don’t think I have ever visited”.

“In terms of monitoring where the community’s at and what the community’s views are, I would have thought that during a pandemic that was critically important,” he said.

“Not who they support and don’t support. That’s not the nat­ure of this important work, and I wouldn’t like to think it had ever been the nature of the work that was done, whether it be by (Liberal polling firm) Crosby Textor under a previous government, not a Labor government, I might add, if that wasn’t abundantly obvious.

“Mr Armitage does important work and it’ll be reported on in the Department of Premier and Cabinet annual report, as it is every year.”

The department’s annual report merely details the amount of money spent on all consultancies worth more than $10,000, as required by law, with no information on what the money paid for.

Asked whether he would be prepared to make the research public, given it has been funded by taxpayers, Mr Andrews revealed it had been classified as “cabinet-in-confidence”.

“Cabinet-in-confidence documents are not made public by my government or any government under the Westminster system,” he said.

Asked what QDOS’s work between 2016 and 2018 had involved, Mr Andrews said: “I would have thought understanding what it is the Victorian community wants, what it is the Victorian community is concerned about, their priorities, was a very important part of the job that we have to do.”

Asked whether QDOS was involved in his social media strategy, Mr Andrews, who has 930,000 “likes” on Facebook, said: “Well there are a team of people who work to make sure that we get information out to as many people as often as we can, and I would never make any apology for the fact that there are some new media platforms and they are particularly good at engaging with people, and public information is very important, pandemic on a pandemic, and I would have thought the number of people who connect with those platforms would be proof positive of that.”

Asked whether it had been appropriate to award Mr Armitage’s firm contracts without a tender process and for taxpayers rather than Labor to foot the bill for political strategy research, he said: “It’s not political work.”