Christopher Hitchens famously said of Margaret Thatcher, “the rodent slowly stirring in my viscera[ was] the uneasy but unbanishable feeling that on some essential matters she might be right”. I feel much the same way about former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett.
Oh, how I detested Kennett when he was premier of what was then still my home state. In the years, since, though, My views have undergone a slight re-evaluation. I still find Kennett distinctly unlikeable, but in retrospect it seems pretty clear that he was the right man for a diabolical job: restoring Victoria’s economy in the wake of the Cain-Kirner government.
Which does lead me to wonder: who is going to step up to clear the catastrophic mess the Andrews government is leaving behind?
Jeff Kennett appears to be wondering much the same.
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says he is disappointed by the “lack of leadership” shown by the state opposition, amid a push from Victorian Liberals for stronger scrutiny of the Andrews government.
For all intents and purposes, Victoria seems to be operating as a one-party state. The Andrews government, having granted itself sweeping powers under the cloak of the Wuhan pandemic, is acting with all-but complete immunity to democratic accountability.
No thanks to a supine opposition.
Mr Kennett said it was a difficult time to be in opposition given the public and the media “look to the government of the day knowing that the opposition is not in a position to affect anything”.
“But that said I have been disappointed at what I would say (is) the lack of leadership being shown by the opposition,” Mr Kennett told The Australian.
In a meeting of federal and state party presidents on last Friday, [Victorian Liberal Party president Robert] Clark praised Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien for not being overly political during the state’s second wave of COVID-19.
There may be times when bipartisanship is a responsible strategy. But, with a government as clearly inept and opaque as the Andrews government, now is not one of those times. The opposition should be hanging the government out to dry.
Mr Clark’s comments at the meeting have incensed some state and federal Liberal MPs who believe the Victorian Liberal leader was not doing enough to attack Labor Premier Daniel Andrews.
Instead, it’s the federal party who are being left to hold “Dictator Dan” to account.
Mr Clark’s comments were perceived within the party as a veiled criticism of state MP Tim Smith and federal frontbencher Michael Sukkar, who had openly criticised Mr Andrews.
Since the meeting between party presidents on Friday, Mr Frydenberg has been critical of the Andrews government and urged Mr Andrews to be transparent about the hotel quarantine disaster.
Scott Morrison on Monday gave the green light to his ministers criticising the Andrews government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, declaring no politician should have a “leave pass to scrutiny”[…]
On Monday, Melbourne-based frontbencher Alan Tudge, the Population Minister, said Victorians wanted clearer answers on the hotel quarantine mistakes.
To be fair, Victorian opposition leader Michael O’Brien has tried to take the stick to Andrews. “In declaring a State of Disaster, Premier Daniel Andrews has conceded that his government has lost control of COVID-19 in this state,” Mr O‘Brien said in a statement.
Yet, O’Brien then pivots to weak-kneed “bipartisanship”: “But losing this battle against COVID-19 is not something that we can contemplate. We simply must prevail and get this virus back under control, despite how bitter the medicine is.”
So much for serving up a beating to a grotesquely failed government. In the memorable words of Paul Keating, Andrews would be justified in feeling that he’s been flogged with a warm lettuce leaf.
Victorians might still be far too inclined to defend Andrews, but they’re also growing angry and distraught at their state’s spiralling failure. An opposition leader with a bit of basic political mongrel should be working to focus that anger and despair right where it belongs.
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