Daniel Andrews’ fixation on Covid’s political pulse

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews.

Disregard Dan’s deft deflections.

Politics was part of Premier Daniel Andrews’ hand-picked strategist’s mission when he and his firm, QDOS, were called on to help the government’s response to Covid-19.

We can say this for a number of reasons.

First, the government’s own documents, released to The Australian after a two-year FoI battle, reveal this to be true.

Briefing notes from focus groups headlined ‘‘QDOS Research Memo to DPC - August 2020’’ and marked ‘‘cabinet in confidence’’ were delivered to the Premier’s own department.

They included sections headlined ‘‘Dan Andrews’’ and carried analysis of what the focus groups told QDOS about their feelings towards the Premier.

One QDOS nugget of analysis from one focus group read: “Dan Andrews. Sentiment in these groups was similar to earlier rounds and these people were considerably more likely to jump to the defense of the Government and Dan Andrews — “unprecedented times,” “Doing his best in really difficult times”, “Listening to the experts”, “Really difficult decisions”.

And then there was this from QDOS based on another focus group: ‘‘Strong support for Dan Andrews and a broad acknowledgement of the good job he and the Government are doing in very difficult circumstances.’’

And this: ‘‘People have become less likely to freely offer support for Dan Andrews but if he is criticised by one person a bigger number stridently come to his defence.’’

Are we to believe that in the presence of highly skilled people readers like QDOS, these Victorians simply volunteered their views of the Premier? And QDOS then took it upon itself to include those views in official briefing notes marked for the Premier’s cabinet?

Second, online survey forms revealed by The Australian today show that in early 2021, as debate about the vaccine roll-out emerged, QDOS started polling whether Victorians trusted prime minister Scott Morrison, Premier Daniel Andrews and their respective lieutenants — and asked them to score that from zero to 10.

What public health benefit could this deliver? That is unclear.

The political edge? That is clear. It would arm a leader with a strong sense of how an attack on an opponent might be received by the community.

Third, just weeks after QDOS sent those focus group briefing notes to the Premier’s own department, Armitage personally briefed the Covid-19 crisis cabinet about public perceptions of Andrews’ performance.

Labor sources familiar with the appearance in late August 2020 say Armitage presented a detailed analysis of how Victorians rated the Premier. He assured the eight-member crisis cabinet that despite the second wave and the government’s killer hotel quarantine fiasco there was still solid support for their boss.

Armitage told the cabinet that Victorians respected the way the Premier turned up every day at press conferences, Labor sources said. The sources said that at the time of the Armitage-Cabinet briefing there was an emerging anxiety in Caucus about the political fallout from the government mistakes, second wave and lockdown.

Some ministers at the Armitage briefing were left with the impression that they should filter this message back to Caucus to calm the nerves.

Four, everything Daniel Andrews does is political. He learned to rely on data as an assistant secretary of the Victorian ALP. He runs the most ruthless and formidable political operation in the country. Covid-19 was a health crisis. But it was also a political crisis. And he needed a political response as well as a health response.