There really is no getting away from how dumb Daniel Andrews is, with this the latest: Dan Andrews rips into Scott Morrison as the Prime Minister calls for end to hated Covid isolation rules: ‘I’m in the business of taking advice from the experts’.
Everyone in politics has “experts” to draw upon. We elect our leaders for their judgment; we elect them in the hope they will be able to make sensible decisions based on the advice they are given. The PM is trying to emphasise that the lockdowns and closed borders are based on decisions made by the premiers, and if things were up to him, many of the restrictions now in place would be lifted. Andrews has thus helped the PM get his message across. It is Andrews who is responsible for having implemented the world’s longest lockdown, and for keeping the present restrictions in place.
As for taking advice, it has been clear from the start that it is Andrews who has made all the major decisions in Victoria, and that the only serious consultation he does is with those who do the polling. That is what we have had to put up with since the start. But if he has not had a variety of opinions offered by the “experts” he is surrounded by, Victoria really is an idiocracy from the very top all the way down. But that is not how it worked out. The people who do the polling have told him that the majority of voters in Victoria prefer the lockdowns and that is what we have had, and will continue to have until voter sentiment changes.
There he is, a political leader, Premier of the State, but still doesn’t know what the job he has actually is. It is to make decisions based on all of the options that others propose.
That he has been singularly inept in the decisions he has made is just how it is. He will leave Victoria a bankrupt mess, wrecking the world’s most liveable city in the process. And there is no doubt that the mess is directly attributable to the string of phenomenally bad decisions Daniel Andrews has made while Premier.
More likely he’s on the take. His Belt and Road masters want him to weaken Victoria. Much easier to buy it up cheap then.
He is a Trot and he knows EXACTLY what he is doing.
There is nothing “dumb” (politically!) about him! In fact it is the polar opposite!
By the way Steve I always love your articles. You would have to be one of my absolute favourites.
Him, and Sneakers over here in WA.
Who has just declared he intends to keep his Emergency Declaration and rules in place for a long time to come…
nothing new under the sun
Victoria, a socialist sh-thole
always was, always will be
I think that Andrews, plus most state premiers, especially Labor ones know exactly what they are doing. It is hanging on to POWER, plain and simple. Why we have pandemic rules when hordes of us have had the virus is a ploy not medicine. Still pushing vaccines and boosters when death and injury all over the world, including us. from the bogus jab is yet another con. They are still trying to keep their ‘exalted’ positions, with or without medical reasons.
The man is intellectually bereft but has the infallible instincts of a malevolent sewer rat. Don’t ever stand downwind of him.
He’s more universally despised than it appears on the surface.
The problem is both Mad Mark and Demented Dan are adored by the public for ‘keeping them safe’.
nothing new under the sun
Victoria, a socialist sh-thole
always was, always will be
Victoria separated from NSW based on wealth from gold and wool- you obviously have no idea what you are talking about.
For me this is the saddest and most frightening revelation to come from this whole crap fest.
A vast majority of my fellow citizens really are dribbling cretins.
Take it from this Sandgroper, the Vox Populi over this way swung hard over from that position a year ago. It was put up with, but since February and Sneakers’ last-minute backflip on reopening borders and flipping around mask mandates and other restrictions, the mood is sirlier than the media will permit you to see.
They love this stuff, and really really do not want to give the proles their freedom.
Brad Hazzard hits back at the AHPPC for its recommendation to remove isolation for COVID-19 close contacts after BA.2 peak (5 Apr)
“Here in NSW” we think Hazzard and Chant are a pair of totalitarian maniacs. How stupid is this? They are defying even the “experts”: the combined CHOs of the AHPPC.
Just go away and take your fascist lockdowns, masks and useless isolation periods with you.
Andrews is a wanker.
The reluctance of politicians to give up the totalitarian restrictions which they implemented supposedly on “the health advice” but don’t want to end on any sensible advice – is very revealing.
Andrews is a dangerous man, one who signed the Belt and Road agreement.
You say he’s clueless — but the Vic opposition seems to have even less of a clue, otherwise they’d be in power, no?
Andrews is an idiot…but he is our idiot. My fellow Victorians are intent on following his commands and love his lockdown mantra. The fact that he is a corrupt idiot and none of this registers with the locals is a symbol of the times. Victoria is cooked.
” The PM is trying to emphasise that the lockdowns and closed borders are based on decisions made by the premiers, and if things were up to him, many of the restrictions now in place would be lifted.”
Only because an election is imminent, Morrison has been fully on board with Dan up to now. If either the Libs or Labor get power at the next election it will be game on again and more lockdowns etc.
duncanm
You are on the mark re dan’s fawning opposition.
Not a brain to speak of between them.
Why on earth would they go along with dan’s zero emmissions policy!
They have NOT come up with an alternative to dans “lock em up and throw away the key” policy, on the “deadly to children at primary school” virus!
Any wonder they will be decimated at the next election.
I can only hope some of the blatant corruption comes back and bites hard. The rallies against the pandemic bill last year should’ve been a bit of a clue how unpopular it was, but he’s too arrogant to do anything but his way.
Edwina at 9:40 – spot on. Chairman Dan is the most dangerous leader we have ever seen in Australia. Leaves The Great Man in the dust.
The outcome of Nuremberg after WW2 saw a great many people hanged for exactly the same thing visited upon we Australians by the State Premiers, their advisers, and the PM. They won’t be hanged of course thus proving we haven’t learned anything from past events and the people who follow in the State Premiers and the PM’s footsteps will do it all over again as the mood takes them.
The ‘expert advise’ is invaluable politically as a scapegoat. You don’t need to follow it, in fact seems Dan mostly did his own thing. But it serves brilliantly as plausible deniability for a bad outcome and the ‘experts’ will never object because they live off Dan as a sole provider.
Every time the receive an “experts” report and ‘agree with all the recommendations’ they were all pre-determined prior at the time of engagement. In other words the experts are well accustomed to the politics and go with the flow on the basis of being well paid and temporarily secure. Not the best to be occasionally blamed for a situation you didn’t recommend but there is a bonus to cover that.
Hardly clueless in fact quite the opposite if your object is to remain in power.If your object is to improve the lives of your fellow citizens , he is totally clueless but his fellow citizens do not seem concerned about that.
All the time he was posing as someone subordinate to the ‘experts’.
A leader listens to others with their various fields of knowledge and does what none of them can do – weigh it all up and reach a decision provides the best outcomes overall. They should also have an ear for how these experts can be swept up in their expertise, be prone to exaggeration, and their suspicion of anyone who does not come to the same conclusions.
In short, a leader will be aware that their experts are not the purest distillation of an area of knowledge, but people. People described as ‘expert’ through some human process itself capable of human flaws.
Dan Andrews showed himself to be the weakest kind of leader. As soon as something unfamiliar came up, he judgement to someone else. And they loved it.
Let’s imagine you wanted to design a passenger airliner. Imagine you gather some pilots together to advise the design team on what it needed to be like. Imagine you separately did the same thing but this time with a team of flight attendants. And another team with ground engineers and maintenance crews. And another with frequent flying passengers. And another with the baggage loaders. And another of the bean counters for an airline.
Would any of these designs be practical? Would any of them get passengers from one city to another in bearable comfort and reliable safety at a price they could afford?
Dan Andrews just said “Meh, let the guys who design the seatbelts be in charge.”
The Andrews government first created the climate of fear, and then blindly followed the the smell of fear from the terrified masses.
There was a song by They Might Be Giants called Particle Man – a sort of imagined superhero in the established superhero mould.
There was a couple of lines:
It was just the other way around. Frightened Dan went in and all the water turned to fear, and then that sea of fear kept him afraid.
ABCcess this morning trumpeting the “all restrictions lifted’ for a couple of states.
No mention of the odious enabling emergency acts though.
They wont/cant give up thier shield against spending the next decade being litigated against.
Most clue-less political leader in Australian history?
Don’t kid yourself.
Andrews has subverted a whole state, including your judiciary and police.
And he’ll still get reelected.
The appeal to “experts” is the same political trick Palaszczuk played up here; it was a useful deflection of responsibility for the introduction of measures that were unprecedented in living memory, but as soon as an election was announced, it was “Look, I saved you!”
Steve,
Of course Andrews and the other premiers have been making the decisions and have used their respective CHOs, who have all basked in the glow of the public’s focus, as cover for supposed “health advice.”
We know this because of decisions that have been made and then quickly removed – see the playground decision in Victoria as an example.
But the PM has been a party to all of these decisions since the day the national cabinet was convened. He as much as admitted it at his National Press Club speech of a couple of weeks ago. He said his job was to get people in the room and get an agreement and this he did. Not once, despite some of the most draconian controls and violence perpetrated against the people by those whose job it is to protect them, has he voiced any concerns and called an end to such disgraces.
Now, however, he has begun to change tack because it’s all about his re-election. He has thrown or allowed to be thrown under a bus small business and workers who don’t have the luxury of government employment.
He did what he did for ScoMo.
As BBS states above, it’s all about the election Mr. Morrison will lose handsomely at a comfortable canter and deservedly so, an unfortunate event for Labor will be much worse if that’s at all possible. None of this is about the welfare of we peasants for politicians couldn’t care less about us until election time. The lessening of restrictions is a prime example and another nail in Mr. Morrisons political coffin for in reality nothing has changed, the so called “dreaded” hasn’t gone away except some people have died needlessly from the side effects of the vaccine so the whole nine yards of it all has been an exercise in futility unless of course it was an attempt to bankrupt our country.
An excellent book about all this is “The Great Covid Panic”, one of the authors is Gigi Foster, who was often on Sky. Outlines responses by 3 different types of people. One is the type who scares easily, seeks security in compliance and expects the government to look after them, which seems to me, most of the people living here in Vic.
Dan referring to “I consult experts” seems to appeal to these non curious people so he’s doing what he thinks will get him re-elected. Not dumb but researched.
Hope facts have awakened these “dribbling cretins” (thanks 123 above) into more independent thoughts and that this evil bloke is thrashed in November.
Viktor Orban has just strolled to his 4th term. Before the poll the Guardian and ABC online outlets were breathlessly talking up the prospects of the coalition of disparate voices that had aligned to oppose him. Say what you like about Orban, but he hasn’t felt the need to bend to every woke zephyr . And he is rewarded by a thumping majority. Now the usual suspects are back to sliming him. That’s all they’ve got. ScoMo just doesn’t get it. Never will. As for Andrews, he may be evil – but he’s not stupid. He’ll keep on winding back the repressive measures (which ScoMo funded) and, come election time, he’ll be up against a vapid mob of “conservatives” with as much nous and principle as Morrison.
“…totalitarian restrictions which they implemented supposedly on “the health advice”…”
When I sent published papers to my MP, he didn’t pass them on to the “experts”, get a response and then update (if required) his views, he simply stated that he had made up his mind and wouldn’t be changing it.
If that doesn’t tell you it is not a health issue but one of politics, nothing will.
Making a choice in a highly fluid situation, where information changes nearly daily, and then “sticking” to your choice is bad governance, pure and simple. It might be good politics, but it is without doubt bad governance, and indisputably not science based.
So i guess that that’s one thing the left got correct – tearing down the non-working system and implementing a new one is long overdue. I don’t know how to make it better, and I certainly agree it could be worse still, but we have to start somewhere.
Dictator Dan does not follow the “experts” (except when it suits him), but makes up his own mind and enforces his own laws and restrictions, no dissent allowed, even within his own people.
Even Sutton has admitted that decisions were made without his input, or against his advice.
There is good reason the Victorian government hasn’t released documents relating to Covid policy despite FOI requests; because they don’t exist.
The POS makes it up as he goes along.
I don’t believe you Mr. Morrison, you are just as culpable as the state premiers for the last two years of destruction of the economic and social fabric of this nation.
” Not once, despite some of the most draconian controls and violence perpetrated against the people by those whose job it is to protect them, has he voiced any concerns and called an end to such disgraces. “
Indeed.
He had every right to make a statement such as “Since I invoked a Federal Human Biosecurity Emergency, and since federal law over-rides state law where they conflict, the states will follow the law as set forth under the Federal Biosecurity Act, which of course entails the requirement that any forced actions against a citizen with respect to their freedom of association, what they must wear and what they are forced to consume or be injected with and so on, must only be made on a case by case basis and only after due process has been satisfied. Any deviation from this law will be met with a federally initiated law suit and/or injunctions as appropriate. We are a free country under the rule of law, and the state governments must also obey the law – and we will make sure they do, or they will pay the penalty imposed by the courts.”
But that would require a spine…
Yep. Could have kneecapped them in a few different ways from not funding it all to not allowing access to the medical records. He didn’t.
Andrews would have to be the most polarising, divisive and mendacious leader of note in Australian history. Even today, keeping mask mandates and preventing unvaccinated people from working is nothing more than Andrews punishing people who disagree with him. The man is a cnut, simple as that.
What Rosie said.
Plus 100.
And he doesn’t use lube.
Excellent article Mr. Kates.
I thought the big media splash and funding announcement today at the Frankston hospital was telling, it’s where Dan was taken after his ‘accident’. Obviously some favours to return, hush money to facilitate…
It’s more than that, even though what you say is fundamentally true. Only the leader has consequences. It’s also that experts are only objective within their field of expertise. They are also biased towards their field of expertise, and hence the solutions proposed, as you implied.
I’ve seen this over and over. Educators propose educational solutions, lawyers, legal ones, and so on. Expertise is wholly used and abused in 2022, and it’s used to invoke magical qualities like the witchdoctors of old.
Scomo stood by while the state premiers turned this country into a biosecurity police state. He let them thrash the constitution and won’t do anything to make sure this doesn’t happen again. At the forthcoming election it will be a choice between tweedle dee and tweedle dum. Dan Andrews has shown us what little rights the citizen has so in that sense he has served as a warning. Unless we have a bill of rights or similar in the federal constitution and a federal government willing to enforce it then as a country we are destined to be consigned to servitude under an “ expertocracy”.
If Morrison is so against continuing restrictions then he could start by allowing us unjabbed citizens to leave this effin country.
ScoMo completely misunderstands his job, it’s in the title Prime Minister. He is the first decision maker in the country, not a facilitator. I can understand the tinpot dictators in the states but he had the upper hand with the funds and did nothing.
The worst PM so far but we will have the misfortune to yet see what that spitting idiot Albo has in store for us.