These last 7 days in Victorian Politics (#springst) have been characterised by a series of own goals by BOTH major parties.
While normally I would use this to hold the Andrews Government to account, the truth is, both the government AND opposition have had absolute shockers and most, if not, all of these could've been avoided with a bit of commonsense.
I will confess that in compiling these, a couple of them could be seen as nit-picking but the inescapable reality is that this nit-picking highlights issues that I have long been concerned about when it comes to politics in this state.
Renee Heath (Liberal) No Legislative Council member in Victoria should EVER make the news for doing something stupid but over the last few years, we've had no shortage of MPs covering themselves in shame ranging from the likes of Adam Somyurek (former ALP) and Bernie Finn (former LNP) to Catherine Cumming (ex-Justic Party). You can now add Renee Heath to this list of shame following her diabolically poor decision to attend an event last Friday night, hosted by anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination activist Morgan Jonas.
According to Heath, she was attending to support her father who was speaking at the event but; Did she at any stage stop to think about how this would look in terms of optics for the Liberal Party? Remember, this is the same Heath who lost her role as Liberal Party Secretary during the bust-up that saw Moira Deeming suspended from the party room. This is also the same Renee Heath who previous leader Matthew Guy distanced himself from after her links to a church group were exposed.
This is as bad an own-goal as you get as it reinforces far and wide to a very impressionable Victorian electorate that the Liberal Party are in bed with the far-right and Neo-Nazis. The lack of self-awareness about how this could look is just simply unacceptable and quite frankly inexcusable. Heath should've known better than to attend that event and has created a PR nightmare (not that they need any more) for the Liberal Party.
Will Fowles (Labor) Saturday night saw the astonishing news that Will Fowles was being referred to the police over assault allegations. Equally astonishing was the statement from Daniel Andrews which highlighted that "people have the right to a safe working environment." Now at this point in time, no one actually knows what unfolded which led to these allegations, nor do we know the extent of them. Fowles categorically denied the allegations and equally managed to contradict Premier Daniel Andrews when he said that he hadn't resigned from the Victorian Labor Party despite Andrews saying he had.
As everyone should know already, if you are going to contradict Daniel Andrews in any way, shape or form, you are going to end up in a very cold freezer. The fact that Andrews' statement refused to refer to Fowles by name is further confirmation that Fowles is indeed in the freezer and has joined the list of people who have been "that person'd" or deidentified by Andrews.
Credit where credit is due, Andrews has done the RIGHT THING here. He was made aware of allegations, had either himself or someone from his office investigate and when it became clear that it could be serious, referred them to police and forced him to resign from the Victorian Labor Party.
While I give Andrews credit for acting in the correct and proper manner here, there are a couple of contradictions that need to be addressed.
1) This is the same Fowles who was allowed to remain in the Labor Party following his drunken antics regarding a hotel incident in Canberra. Andrews did in fact defend him when in reality, he should've been disendorsed them. Some may say I'm being harsh but if you're going to be a politician, you should be held to the highest of standards within reason. Fowles failed that standard and Andrews defended him.
2) Will Fowles is currently Chair of the Electoral Matters Committee which is holding hearings into the 2022 State Election. Hearings at that committee were held today however Fowles was absent. Being the Chair of a Committee gets an extra salary on top of his MP salary so essentially today, he was paid while being absent. His resignation from that committee should've occurred at the same time he was forced to resign from the Labor Party. That it didn't is simply NOT good enough.
Daniel Andrews (Part 1) So the day after the Will Fowles allegations, Premier Daniel Andrews was grilled at a press conference. He was asked about Fowles and also about the Legislative Council's enquiry into the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games.
To the absolute surprise of no one who is familiar with the way Andrews conducts himself concerning matters of transparency regarding projects, Andrews then proceeded to confirm that he would NOT be attending that enquiry, even if called. If this was Andrews' first faux-pas regarding matters of transparency, he probably could be forgiven but given this is a repeated pattern of how the Andrews government operates (I've seen this first-hand) my tolerance for these repeated abuses against transparency no longer exists.
The Victorian people deserve full answers regarding the many questions that exist about the cancellation of the Games. The Victorian people deserve to know the cost of this cancellation and the confirmed refusal of Andrews to attend this enquiry when it kicks off, shows his utter contempt for transparency in politics.
In 2023, this is no longer acceptable. We can and should be doing better than this but it is now clear that while we are stuck in this state of politics, that simply isn't going to happen.
Daniel Andrews (Part 2) This one could deserve an entire blog on its own due to certain complexities but essentially the summary is this. On Wednesday, Ambulance Victoria had a lavish gathering at Hotel Chadstone to unveil their new values policy. The price for this gathering - $10,000 In order to come up with their new policy, they engaged consultants to help them. The price for the consultants - $500,000 Now, being fair here, Ambulance Victoria needed a values overhaul after allegations sexual misconduct and harassment were rife in the organisation. When an organisation is in crisis, they look to an overhaul to show the public that they are taking the crisis seriously and are committed to change. While this is an admirable goal, there is a problem when the following is happening 1) Graduations are no longer being held 2) Paramedics are struggling to get basic equipment to enable them to do their jobs Andrews was asked about this and he defended the cost saying that "he saw them as investments" and that "Ambulance Victoria's budget is generally well managed." How the hell can a budget be well managed when paramedics are struggling to get basic equipment that enables them to do their job? Also, a $10k gathering to unveil a policy when paramedics don't have warmer clothing for winter...is this a joke?
Optics-wise, this is an absolute shocker and Andrews' defence of this "investment" was no better. This is another "things cost what they cost" defence and really, when paramedics are struggling to get the basics, obviously, something doesn't add up and I strongly suggest you will find the answer to that hidden somewhere in the Ambulance Victoria budget.
Will Fowles Assault Claims - Liberal Party This was an absolutely woeful own goal from the Liberal Party and one that simply doesn't need to and shouldn't happen. Today, the Liberal Party came out and basically asked for the head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet to investigate these allegations and that Victorians should know the truth about what unfolded.
Now here's the thing.
This is categorically the worst suggestion that I have ever heard of in my life.
What happened that led to Will Fowles being forced to resign from the Victorian Labor Party is not your story to demand, nor is it your story to tell.
What happened is the victim's story to tell, should they choose to do so. If they choose not to, that is also their choice and that choice should be respected. Equally, the victim deserves their right to privacy AND to their anonymity.
Any political investigation would deny the victim the right to their privacy and anonymity and deny any chance of a fair hearing, should the victim choose to pursue charges against Will Fowles. This is NOT remotely an acceptable suggestion at all and the fact that anyone thought it was a good idea to make this suggestion...well, let's just say that it's appalling judgement.
John Pesutto has completely screwed up on this one and just reinforces through these misjudgements, why Victorians won't vote to change government. It's absolutely shameful, especially for those of us who would like to see a viable alternative come along to force the Labor Party out of power and give us the chance to clean up politics in this state.
This has been a very bad week in terms of optics and no one is covering themselves in any glory here.
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