Covid Premiers Disappear Quietly into the Night While We Pick up the Pieces of What is Left

Remember how Dan Andrews resigned suddenly as Premier of Victoria?

He quit working in Spring Street, from where he had long tormented the good people of his state, to spend his days playing golf, only to find successive golf courses voted against him becoming a member.

Anyway, his resignation was kind of sudden.

Hmmm.

Well, we learned this week that the Liberal Opposition have been trying to get hold of documents relating to Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine program since 2021.

The hundreds of documents involved sure would make interesting reading.

You might recall how the Andrews’ government appointed a private security firm to manage the Covid quarantine program without ever putting the job out to tender.

An inquiry found the role performed by security guards in the program was "ill-defined from the beginning”.

It found the security guards were “ultimately, not suited” to the role and were “without close monitoring and training”.

Oops.

As everyone now knows, some of the security guards interacted with people in quarantine, spreading the virus throughout the community and, as a result, 800 Victorians died.

Oops, indeed.

So, correspondence between former premier Dan Andrews and his department regarding the hotel quarantine fiasco would be kind of interesting to read. Don’t you think?

But after years of ducking and weaving about releasing the papers, the Victorian Labor Government now argues that they can’t hand over documents because Dan Andrews no longer works there.

Premier Jacinta Allan told journalists this week …

“Clearly they are not my documents.”

What? Did Dan Andrews take them home?

What if the now Victoria Premier asked nicely? Would Dan be so kind as to fetch them from his garage?

Does the Victorian Labor Government stop being the Victorian Labor Government when they have a change of leader?

The Victorian Liberals made just this point, saying …

“It would be extraordinary if a claim that because the premier, premier Daniel Andrews, is no longer the premier … that the FOI claim would be thereby defeated.”

The Australian Information Commissioner and the Victorian Information Commissioner have both said in the past that ­FOI requests do not cease simply because of a change of minister.

Victoria’s public access deputy commissioner Joanne Kummrow said recently …

“Rather, the new minister, who takes over the relevant area or areas of responsibility of the former minister, is taken to be the relevant minister or ‘respondent’ for the purposes of the ongoing handling of the request or review.”

Labor continually trumpet their commitment to transparency whilst doing everything they can to hide information.

The release of documents under FOI laws has slowed dramatically since Victoria Labor came to power in 2014.

Government departments denied full access to more than a third of the 48,117 requests last financial year, data shows.

And complaints to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner about FOIs have gone from 243 in 2014-15 to 651 in 2022-23.

If only Dan Andrews still worked at Spring Street, we might know what really went on behind the scenes with that ill fated decision to put security guards where other states chose to put police.

You have to wonder if that’s part of the reason Dan Andrews no longer darkens the corridors of State Parliament.

As England and Scotland hold UK hold Covid inquiries that have revealed a shocking level of incompetence by government ministers, you have to wonder if avoiding further scrutiny is part of the reason none of the state premiers overseeing the pandemic response still hold their positions.

They have all disappeared quietly into the night, enjoying their pensions while the nation continues to pick up the pieces of what is left and wondering all the time what the hell really went on.