QDOS documents: Secret polling on Scott Morrison and Daniel Andrews’ comments on Covid-19 vaccines

A secret taxpayer-funded program polled Victorians on whether they believed prime minister Scott Morrison and Premier Daniel Andrews were saying about Covid-19 vaccines.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: AAP

A secret taxpayer-funded program polled Victorians on whether they believed what then prime minister Scott Morrison and Premier Daniel Andrews were saying about Covid-19 vaccines and asked them to score their trust in the leaders out of 10.

Andrews government documents reveal that in early 2021 as federal-state tensions rose over vaccines, the Premier’s $2m political strategy firm QDOS embarked on a survey to rate community trust in both leaders on the key issue.

In the QDOS survey Victorians were asked if they trusted Dan Andrews or Scott Morrison

Documents released under Freedom of Information laws to The Australian reveal QDOS asked Victorians to score both leaders from zero to 10 for ‘‘providing you with information about the safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccination’’.

Scott Morrison. Picture: Gaye Gerard

The online survey also asked Victorians to score then federal health minister Greg Hunt, Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly and then state health minister Martin Foley and the state’s chief health officer Brett Sutton out of 10 on vaccine trust.

In April 2021, another online survey asked Victorians to rate their vaccine trust in acting premier James Merlino, who had stepped into the top job after Mr Andrews broke his back, as well as Mr Morrison, Mr Hunt and Mr Kelly.

The results of the trust surveys were redacted by the Department of Premier and Cabinet from 230 pages of QDOS-related documents spanning November 2020 to May 2021.

The surveys also asked Vic­torians to rate their trust in vaccine information coming from doctors, nurses, family, friends, government websites and the media.

The release of the documents followed the DPC abandoning an appeal against the release of almost 200 QDOS documents from 2020 revealing the political strategy firm, run by Labor ­operative John Armitage, monitored Victorians’ views about Mr Andrews’ personal performance during the state’s 112-day lockdown.

Asked what the benefit to ­taxpayers was of using taxpayer-funded polling to rate Mr ­Andrews and Mr Morrison on vaccine trust, a spokesperson for the Premier said: ‘‘Community feedback helped us understand the most effective health ­message carriers in our efforts to keep the community safe, ­support our health workers, and encourage people to get ­vaccinated and save lives during a one-in-100-year pandemic.’’

Mr Armitage did not respond to questions.

On February 21, 2021, Mr Morrison became one of the first Australians to be vaccinated and urged people to “join us on this Australian path” out of the pandemic.

Through March and April, the Morrison government came under increasing pressure from the states over a vaccine rollout that fell behind schedule.

By April, just 125,000 of the target of four million doses had been administered.

Mr Andrews defended the QDOS program on Wednesday, saying it was necessary to test public opinion “to make sure that you’ve got your messaging right”.

Asked on Wednesday whether the $2m his government had spent on QDOS since 2016 was taxpayer money well spent, Mr Andrews said: “Well when you’ve got a very difficult message to send, a very difficult story to tell, and you want people to comply with rules that are deeply unpopular, deeply ­disruptive, then you need to test to make sure that you’ve got your messaging right.

‘‘Let’s think back to the decisions we made and how disruptive and challenging and difficult they were.

“They were based on health advice, and not about being popular. Far from it. Which is why they worked.’’

Asked why he had spent ­ taxpayers’ money asking Victorians about his popularity if it wasn’t a factor in his decision-making, Mr Andrews said: “That’s not correct at all.

“What this is about is when you’ve got a difficult story to tell, when you’re asking people to do quite extraordinary things, you need to test whether the language you’re using ... because the thing is ... if the message doesn’t get through, ­people die. We had a wildly ­infectious virus.

“You’ve got a tough message. Is it getting through? Are people listening? Are people engaged?

“Are people doing what has to be done to keep them and their families safe, people they know, and people they’ll never meet, safe?

“What have we got to do to ­prevent having to build pop-up cemeteries?

“What would we have to do in order to prevent the death of thousands and thousands of people?

“That’s the fact. People can try and rewrite whatever they want but the facts are very clear, very, very clear.

“Difficult decisions, and Vic­torians stuck together, heeded the advice and popularity was of no concern to me at all.

“I said as much to you at the time.”

Asked why his department had spent nearly two years ­fighting the release of the QDOS documents, Mr Andrews said: “That’s a matter for them. FOI is administered by departmental officials, independent of government, under an act of Victorian parliament.”

Mr Andrews said he “wouldn’t think so” when challenged over the fact that the documents show his private office played a key role in commissioning the polling.

“If you’re putting it to me, that everything we did was in search of popularity, I really think that you’re just wrong,” he said.

Mr Andrews said he couldn’t say how often he had been briefed on the QDOS polling, and “wouldn’t think” the briefings had been regular.