Daniel Andrews (aka Dictator Dan/Chairman Dan) is one of the most divisive, self-serving, and Machiavellian politicians in recent history. While much is being made of his legacy involving bankrupting the Victorian state, denying free speech and religious freedom, and cancelling the Commonwealth Games, his most atrocious sin has been the destruction of citizen respect and trust in government.
One only needs to look at totalitarian regimes including China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba to realise democracy as a system of government is fragile and delicate. While the innate thirst for natural justice, liberty, and freedom are ever present – the reality is that unless nourished and respected, democracy soon descends into oppression.
Andrews, a member of the ALP’s socialist-left, appeared to act as a one-man government, trashing long-held Westminster customs and traditions including the separation of powers, cabinet solidarity (where the leader is one among equals), and respecting citizens’ rights and freedoms.
During the dark days of the Covid lockdowns, the Andrews’ government denied freedom of movement, bankrupted small businesses, ignored concerns of the Parliament, and refused to take responsibility for egregious errors including the hotel quarantine disaster.
Under this fiefdom, local ALP branches were shut down and members were denied the right to pre-select candidates; the police were weaponised to crush peaceful anti-Covid protests; and teachers, nurses and firefighters cancelled because they refused to be vaccinated.
As to why Andrews was never held to account at election – where he remained electorally popular while reducing the Liberal/National opposition to an ineffective, moribund side show – there are many reasons. Having a compliant and ineffective media along with the establishment of one of the largest social media units run by his office, is one reason.
A second reason, much like George Orwell’s Big Brother in his dystopian novel 1984, is that Andrews attended daily media appearances during the interminable Covid lockdowns, presenting himself as the people’s saviour.
Andrews argued he only wanted to safeguard and protect Victorians from what was described as an ever-present, silent but deadly ‘beast’, but during the pandemic the State saw power concentrated in the office of the Premier.
Wearing the mask of a caring but stern favourite uncle, Andrews’ media persona was one of concern and compassion, convincing a fearful and anxious population that if they followed his advice, and only his advice, they would be safe. Whenever doubts were raised, Andrews immediately shut down dialogue by reference to ‘the science’.
A third reason explaining Andrew’s political longevity can be found in the man himself. Politically intimidating when required, he ruled Cabinet with an iron grip, successfully controlling Labor members while treating the opposition with contempt. It was a combination that ensured Andrews’ grip on power was never questioned or threatened.
In my view, Andrews is the type of person who would think the road to Damascus was a travelogue and hubris a Greek dessert. The type of politician who refuses to admit responsibility for misguided and costly policy initiatives by refusing to answer questions or by feigning forgetfulness.
One of the basic tenets of a Westminster-style parliamentary government is an effective and viable Opposition tasked with holding the government to account. A fourth reason explaining Andrew’s longevity is that the Liberal Opposition failed dismally in such a task.
Victoria was left with an Opposition made up of members of Parliament long since past their user-by date, an ineffective and self-serving leadership, and a party driven by the misguided belief that the way to electoral success was to out-Woke the Woke and embrace progressive, centre-left policies.
The Belgian clinical psychologist in his book The Psychology Of Totalitarianism details how, during the years of the Covid pandemic, a form of mass psychosis gripped much of the West as a result of government decisions.
In strategies that could have been taken from communist Russia and China, or even shades of Hitler’s National Socialist Germany, so-called Western democracies enforced compliance by instilling fear of infection and fear of being fined for failing to comply to government directives.
By enforcing group think, accusing citizens of what Orwell describes as thought crime, as well as the threat of physical violence – governments successfully enforced an inflexible and destructive response to the pandemic.
In his speech to Melbourne’s The Robert Menzies Institute, the UK’s Lord Jonathan Sumption singles out Victoria as best illustrating the way long-held liberties and freedoms were quashed by over-bearing and dictatorial governments.
After detailing how governments in the West enforced draconian and unfair measures to Covid that had never occurred in the past with major pandemics including Spanish and Asiatic flu, Sumption writes, ‘In Melbourne, lockdown was enforced with a brutality unequalled in liberal countries.’
Western liberal democracies enshrining popular sovereignty are a rarity and can only prosper and flourish when citizens trust those they have elected. Andrews’ enduring legacy will be how that trust has been lost and how so many Victorians now feel a sense of anxiety and despondency that all is not well.
Dr Kevin Donnelly is a senior fellow at the ACU’s PM Glynn Institute.
