It might seem a bit strange to anyone under 35, but growing up in the 1980s involved having healthy and valid concerns about totalitarian governments. The Cold War was in full swing and the USSR was actively trying to spread its economically and socially repressive form of communism across Europe to the west and to any country ending in "stan" to the south. Closer to home, the Bjelke-Petersen regime in Queensland was well known for its brutal crackdown on protests, prolific government corruption and suppression of any form of fun which offended Joh's Lutheran sensibilities. I still dine out on the story about the police coming to confiscate a condom machine at Queensland University in 1986 on the basis that it immorally encouraged young people to have sex. Never mind that the whole of Fortitude Valley was dotted with illicit brothels, strip clubs and casinos which many of his own cronies used to frequent.
Fortunately, communism in eastern Europe collapsed in 1991, freeing up former Soviet bloc countries to join the European Union and become capitalist democracies. Prior to that in 1989, the 20 year old National Party government in Queensland got turfed unceremoniously out of office on the back of the findings of the Fitzgerald enquiry, and Brisbane finally emerged from its slumber to begin its transition to the vibrant international city it is today.
Happy in the knowledge I'd never have to worry about that sort of thing again, I packed my bags in early 1992 to move to Victoria .... not realising just how wrong I would be one day. Because worryingly, the Andrews government is starting to behave more and more like a tinpot communist dictatorship than the modern Australian democracy it is supposed to be.
My concerns about Andrews' character began early on in his premiership when he summarily tore up the contract for the East-West link that has been entered into by the outgoing Liberal government. Sure, they probably shouldn't have entered into an agreement of that scale so soon before an election, and yes, it was a Labor campaign promise to not proceed with the road. But as far as promises go, given the prodigious cost to the taxpayer of not honouring the agreement, surely he could have deployed some of pragmatic politics that Bob Hawke or Jeff Kennett were good at when inheriting an unexpected grenade from an outgoing government. Yes, those rats in the previous government committed us to doing something we don't agree with, but to back out now will cost us a small fortune and damage the State's credibility with counterparties we deal with in the future. The whole thing reeked of an insecure little man trying to big note himself nationally as someone to be reckoned with, no matter what the consequences. In a way, and with the benefit of hindsight, it feels a little bit like Victoria's equivalent to Trump's Mexican border wall.
But it was Andrews' frankly odd behaviour whenever an incident occurred with a madman on the loose that really started to worry me. Breathlessly fronting the media when the Lindt Cafe siege was on to assure the Victorian public they were safe from a gunman 900km away and then engendering a statewide panic for days when the Pelligrini's owner got stabbed in the CBD just seemed weird. Until, that is, I realised what could be behind it - namely that this drab and otherwise unremarkable politician probably has despotic tendencies.
Tyrants throughout history have always used unsettled times to either cement their grip on power or impose more control on their subjects. Just think about the Nazis using the burning down of the Reichstag as a pretext for indefinitely suspending the German Parliament, or Dick Chaney using 9/11 as a pretext for passing the Patriot Act and invading 2 middle eastern countries. While it was a pathetic attempt to stir up panic in both cases, and while I don't know that Andrews would have either the intellect or self-awareness to realise why he was driven to act the way he did, it did make me concerned about how he might behave when something actually worth worrying about happened.
Well - here we are, and I for one am completely unsurprised at what's happened here in Victoria since the onset of the pandemic. By contrast with the measured, open and pragmatic approach adopted by the Federal government and most of the other states, the behaviour of the Andrews government and particularly the Premier himself has been heavy-handed, secretive, totally unsympathetic and at times downright contemptuous of the struggles people are going through and irritatingly, riddled with some trademark Andrews idiocy and double standards. To wit:
- Almost half the police infringements handed out around the country have been to Victorians despite Victoria only boasting 25% of Australia's total population
- A mother gets fined for giving her daughter a driving lesson as do 3 colleagues carpooling on their way to work. However, at a building site near my office in St Kilda Road I've regularly seen 10 workers standing round in a circle sharing cigarettes, in full view of any passing police cars. But they're probably members of the CFMEU, so that's OK, they get to do what they like
- On the night the excrement really started to hit the fan, Andrews goes on television and announces that as of the next day, all "non-essential" shops will be closed, without providing any details. As a result everyone flies into a panic and go and strip bottleshops' shelves bare over the next 2 hours. Just so, so, so dumb
- In stark contrast to the other states, failing to disclose any details whatsoever about a return to schools for teachers and staff, leading the federal education minister Dan Tehan to fly off the handle in frustration on "Insiders" last Sunday. Disappointingly, Tehan later retracted his comments
- On the Easter weekend, when badgering people not to leave their houses, Andrews expresses a vehement wish for there to be a downpour all long weekend. What a jerk. How about sparing a thought for all the young families cooped up in cramped apartments whose only relief from log cabin fever is to take their kids to the park.
But perhaps the most galling thing of all is that despite all the hectoring press conferences, the cloak and dagger secrecy and the constant threats about more restrictions unless we behave like good little subjects, Victoria has been the least successful of all the states in containing the spread of the virus. As of today, Victoria is the only state still recording an increase in infections, and you know what that means - more weeks of lockdowns as the other states start to return to normal.
Which, to be brutally honest, is EXACTLY what Andrews wants. Relaxing any restrictions would mean giving up some of the autocratic power he has become giddy with over the last 8 weeks. Stuff the economy and stuff parents struggling with home schooling, as long as he gets to tell the toffs in Toorak whether or not they can go skiing in a couple of weeks, or dictate to Gillon McLachlan about when he can restart the AFL, then he's happy as a pig in you-know-what.
As I caught a tram home down a windswept and desolate Chapel Street last night, I was overcome with a genuine sadness about the damage this whole situation has done to this vibrant and enterprising city I call home. I then thought of what might lie ahead were this thoroughly unpleasant Labor apparatchik to secure another 4 years in power, and for the first time in a very long time I wondered about whether moving the family back to Queensland might not be the best thing for us.
The feeling will no doubt pass as the weeks pass and the Federal Government pressure to liberate Victoria and get life back to normal becomes overwhelming. But nonetheless, it has been very unsettling and uncomfortable living in an environment as we have the last few weeks where basic human freedoms are severely abrogated and punishment for transgressions has often been way out of proportion.
It's a salient reminder that totalitarianism is not as dead as perhaps we think it was, and can rear its ugly head in some of the most unlikely places. Which is why when this all finishes we need to hold this mean, abhorrent and hostile state government to account.
