Victorian election: Dreaded C-word is missing in action

Daniel Andrews at the Labor campaign launch in Melbourne on Sunday. Picture: Rebecca Michael

Daniel Andrews’ campaign launch on Sunday was a C-word-free zone.

Covid, that is.

Mention the Premier’s name to most Victorians and it’s likely to evoke strong views one way or another about the 262 days Melburnians spent in lockdown, with unprecedented state government influence over their lives.

Yet at the Cranbourne Community Theatre on Sunday, it was as if the pandemic that dominated the previous term of government had never happened.

A video set to Panic! At the Disco’s High Hopes for the Living went through a highlight reel of the past eight years of Labor government.

There were loud cheers from the party faithful for mentions of policies including building new public housing units, making kindergarten free, hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games, redeveloping the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals, bringing back the State Electricity Commission, and removing level crossings.

Strangely enough, there was not a single clip of any of the 120 consecutive press conferences that Andrews gave in the Treasury Theatre, reeling off Covid-19 case numbers and setting the rules that for months dictated whether Victorians were even allowed to leave their houses.

Both major parties know Victorians do not want to be reminded of that chapter in their lives.

The Coalition is hopeful enough people in the seats that matter will associate their negative pandemic experiences with the Premier, while Labor is hoping the opposite.

Yet at least as interesting as the conspicuous absence of any references to the pandemic was the barest of mentions for the Andrews government’s signature project, the Suburban Rail Loop.

The Premier name-checked it in passing, in a campaign launch that was otherwise focused on reviving the SEC, providing cost-of-living relief for households struggling with power bills, and supporting the parents of children with special needs.

The massive rail tunnel was spruiked at every opportunity ahead of the 2018 poll, and helped Labor win a swath of seats in an eastern suburbs arc between Cheltenham and Box Hill where the first $35bn stage of the project is set to be built.

Since then, the Parliamentary Budget Office has found that the full construction – set to extend to the southeastern suburb of Werribee – could exceed $125bn, and numerous infrastructure experts have expressed scepticism about whether the whole thing stacked up.

Could it be that with interest rates and inflation rising and state debt headed to $165.9bn by 2026, Labor is picking up that in the eyes of voters, the gloss has well and truly come off its pet project?