Ruff day as Andrews dogged by hecklers and past scandals
Daniel Andrews’ third official day on the election campaign trail featured hecklers, questions over a near-fatal collision nine years ago, and revelations he is being investigated in a secret anti-corruption probe.
Daniel Andrews’ third official day on the election campaign trail featured hecklers, questions for him and his wife over their near-fatal collision with a cyclist nine years ago, and revelations that he is being investigated in a secret anti-corruption probe over grants his government awarded to the Health Workers Union ahead of the 2018 poll.
On Friday, the Victorian Premier went to a Caulfield dog park and Port Melbourne bowling club, both in Melbourne’s inner southeast, while Opposition Leader Matthew Guy popped up in Sunbury, on the city’s outer northwestern fringes.
Mr Andrews announced $20m in dog park and animal welfare funding, while Mr Guy unveiled a $160m bus package.
While the Premier appeared to receive a positive reception from some dog owners, two men at Caulfield’s “Pawfield Park” were clearly not fans, with one yelling “You’re a disgrace,” and another asking “What are you running away from?” as Mr Andrews returned to his campaign bus.
He also faced renewed pressure over discrepancies between his family’s account of the 2013 collision and that of the victim, Ryan Meuleman, now 24, after a witness to the crash backed Mr Meuleman’s claims that Mr Andrews and his wife had been slow to render assistance and seemed more focused on their own children, who were then aged five, eight and 10.
Mr Meuleman sustained a punctured lung, broken ribs, internal bleeding, was left with 10 per cent of his spleen, and spent 11 days in the Royal Children’s Hospital following the incident.
In a letter published in the Herald Sun on Friday, former senior Victorian crown prosecutor James Bowen wrote that he finds it “extraordinary” that corruption watchdog IBAC’s 2017 probe into the crash found “no deficiencies” in police handling of the investigation.
Police never interviewed Mr Meuleman, failed to breathalyse Ms Andrews, who said she was driving, did not interview Ms Andrews or Mr Andrews until three and four weeks respectively after the crash, and did not impound or examine their car.
Asked about the incident on Friday, Mr Andrews repeated the answer he gave on Thursday, saying he had canvassed the issues extensively in the past and has “nothing more to say”.
Mrs Andrews said: “I don’t know if you’ve ever been involved in an accident like this before. It was a terrible thing, so traumatic for everyone involved. Our kids were really little. Joseph was only five. Daniel’s spoken about this, I’ve spoken about this, and I’m going to leave it there.”
On revelations that he is facing what amounts to the fourth IBAC probe to involve his office, he said: “What IBAC is or isn’t doing, who they have or haven’t spoken to, is a matter for them.”
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