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The chosen few: How Victoria is really governed

The chosen few: How Victoria is really governed

Coronavirus Victoria: Daniel Andrews must reflect on lessons from hotel quarantine report

If survival of this virus is the sole measure of the quality of political decision-making, then Victoria is pretty well governed. Premier Daniel Andrews has done a lot right, and he certainly hasn t lacked for popularity, despite the botched hotel program and the long, hard lockdown we endured to wrestle this virus to the ground. Loading But none of that should absolve the state government of its mistakes in the setting up and running of the program. It s too simplistic to say they are to blame for the 800 deaths (the majority of which happened in nursing homes, which are largely a federal responsibility). But the litany of errors, the lack of planning, the failure by ministers to demand briefings or take responsibility and the turf-war between agencies should rest heavy on the shoulders of the Premier.

Coronavirus Victoria: How Victoria beat COVID (Part two)

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg were publicly campaigning for one. Restaurant and cafe owners were desperate, as were people who’d been cut off from friends and family for two months. Thompson was a member of a Melbourne University research team, led by epidemiologist Tony Blakely, asked to provide scientific modelling to help inform the government’s exit strategy. The modelling didn’t tell the government what it should do but provided a series of projections about the risk of a further epidemic before Christmas. The most important variable in the modelling – essentially a political one – was how far the government was willing to push case numbers down before it allowed things to reopen. Although Andrews didn’t say it out loud at his press conference, it was clear to Thompson as he drove from his Castlemaine home to Bendigo that the government had decided to go all-in; it planned to eliminate the virus.