Official in lockdown profiling of Victorian citizens
A senior Andrews government bureaucrat profiled Victorians into five categories based on their response to Covid-19 restrictions | WHAT TYPE OF VICTORIAN ARE YOU?
A senior Andrews government bureaucrat described Victorians who were opposed to Covid-19 lockdowns as believing “tyrannical government is the enemy”, embracing “fantastical conspiracy theories” and choosing “individual rights” ahead of “collective rights”.
The scathing assessment of what the bureaucrat conceded covered a “lot of people” was included in an email that profiled Victorians into five categories based on their response to pandemic restrictions.
The high-level communication was sent to the Andrews government’s secretive political intelligence and strategy firm QDOS Research on April 6, 2022, “categorising people by attitude to restrictions”.
The email from the bureaucrat – obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws – listed five categories spanning people who “strongly support and follow restrictions” to the least compliant who considered “restrictions are illegitimate”.
The email exchange between the bureaucrat and a QDOS research director occurred in the final phase of the Andrews government’s controversial pandemic response that locked Melbourne down for a world-record 267 days.
The purpose of the profiling exercise was not disclosed in the April 6 email between the bureaucrat and QDOS released to The Australian among 160 pages of QDOS-related documents spanning October 2021 to June 2022.
The identity and job title of the bureaucrat who drafted the “five categories” email were redacted, but the email was released in response to The Australian’s request for communications between QDOS and the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Premier’s Private Office, meaning it is highly likely the bureaucrat was based in the DPC or PPO.
In the email, the bureaucrat described category one as Victorians who “strongly support and follow restrictions” and who “trust authorities” and consider “following restrictions is the right thing to do for my family and my community” and “don’t find restrictions overly onerous and will follow them”.
The email described category four and five as the least compliant who believed Covid-19 was “exaggerated (just like the flu) or may not exist or doesn’t exist” and “don’t accept the authority of the government to ‘tell them what to do’.”
The bureaucrat sent the “five categories” email at 10.43am:
“Here’s a go at categorising people by attitude to restrictions. Not sure if this is too many words?
“1 & 2 are similar. They make up the bulk of people and are pretty compliant. 3 is probably the main group to persuade – they’re reasonable and need to hear a good case.
“(redacted) but if they feel they are being asked rather than forced they do see themselves as good citizens and will ‘do the right thing’ – may take time to get on board.
“5 not open to any form of sense or reason (a tiny percentage but a lot of people in raw numbers.”
A QDOS research director, whose identity has also been redacted, responded by email at 11.13am:
“Yes, that covers the ranges,” the QDOS executive wrote.
“1 and 2 are very similar so can almost be treated as one group.
“I feel group 3 – or a proportion of it – is still going to be tough to persuade. Unless they have some first-hand experience of the impacts on the health system, they tend to dig in. Time might flip them, as well as people around them doing the right thing. But they need to believe they are making the choice themselves.”
The Victorian government failed to respond to a direct question about the “five categories” email, but issued a broad statement defending the use of public polling in its pandemic response.
“Research was crucial to ensuring the Victorian government could implement the best possible public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” a spokesperson said.
Documents released to The Australian over the past three years have revealed that in addition to conducting the Andrews government’s research, QDOS chiefs John Armitage and Sue Loukomitis regularly briefed bureaucrats and provided cabinet with analysis on the findings.
An email sent by a senior Department of Premier and Cabinet manager on August 30, 2021, illustrates QDOS’s influential role at the highest levels of the Andrews government.
“It is that time again, we don’t have a date as yet but I feel a cabinet meeting (is) going to be scheduled soon,” the manager writes in the email.
“I had a quick look through emails and couldn’t see if the excel files with original charts have been sent for the August survey. If you could provide this morning, that would be a great help.
“It would be helpful if you and John could provide some wording for a high level summary slide, covering the movements and discussions for the last two rounds.”
