Daniel Andrews, Jenny Mikakos in the mother of all bust-ups

Daniel Andrews and Jenny Mikakos have had the mother of all bust-ups.

Once close allies, Andrews conceded on Saturday that Mikakos did not even bother to speak to him before quitting.

Instead, the end came in the form of a Mikakos text and a strident statement from the Health Minister defending her behaviour.

In normal circumstances, this would be the cause of terrific concern to any premier.

But Mikakos has probably done him a significant favour, handing taxpayers the first major scalp of the hotel quarantine scandal.

Andrews is standing behind the secretaries of his own department and health, making it possible (but not certain) that Mikakos will be the only major political victim of the crisis.

It is too soon to say that this will emphatically be the case, but Andrews would believe that Mikakos’s resignation was a solid outcome.

A lame duck minister gone and (politically) she shot herself.

Perhaps the broader question is how Mikakos ever became Health Minister.

Her strongest critics in the Labor caucus have questioned whether she should ever have been elevated to that role.

The DHHS deficiencies are not just limited to hotel quarantine but also contact tracing and a wildly deficient on the ground campaign in the worst affected suburbs.

It still seems incredible that so many people profess not to know what exactly happened with the security guards.

It redefines the word incredible and lacks commonsense.

If the pubs were open, it would fail the pub test.

Internally, the government has been buoyed by opinion polls that suggest the public is right behind Andrews as he goes about his business.

My media statement is attached. #springst pic.twitter.com/h0Quxyed2P

— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) September 25, 2020

A more sober assessment might be that a stunned electorate just wants to see the job done.

Once the final hotel quarantine report surfaces and the challenge of the economic rebuild becomes clear, the electorate will quite likely take a darker view of the government’s performance.

To that end, Andrews will be happy that Mikakos’s farewell allows him the opportunity to start the political rebuild today.

The failures are so vast that it’s hard, in normal circumstances, to see a government surviving this whole mess.

But it is Victoria and it has shown a relentless propensity to forgive Andrews because many see him as a politician who gets things done.