Dan Andrews must resign for the good of the country

Was anyone actually surprised?

We had been promised the gold standard. The first class. Top notch.

Improvements had been made, Andrews assured us.

Lessons had been learned.

The mistakes of the past were just that, the past.

Yet here we are, back in lockdown.

We are told it is only for five days. But who knows. The Health Department’s website suggests otherwise, with the ‘stay safe’ period extending to a fortnight.

Victorians are right to be angry and they are right to mistrust this Premier, whose botched record at managing this crisis leads to the inescapable conclusion: he must resign.

Once is a mistake.

Twice is a pattern.

Three times is a habit.

It is time to break that habit.

Andrews survived last year’s sham hotel quarantine inquiry that turned into nothing more than a window dressing exercise that allowed him to deflect hard questions. In the end, heads rolled around him. His own former health minister, Jenny Mikakos, even warned us not to trust the Premier, whose phone records were conveniently kept hidden throughout the whole affair.

I wonder why.

Andrews managed to ride the wave while 800 Victorians perished and the state endured 112 days of lockdown. Businesses closed, people’s mental health deteriorated, school students’ learning was disrupted. Andrews remained defiant through it all.

Yet here we are, back again. Another hotel quarantine outbreak delivered to Victorians courtesy of an incompetent government that just cannot get it right.

To rub salt into the wound, look at the success of New South Wales under the Liberal-National government.

What makes matters worse is the lying. Andrews blames the ‘highly infectious’ UK strain, yet other states have also managed this strain successfully. What is really the problem is that our contact tracing system is still not up to scratch. It was revealed this morning that they had only managed to reach 40% of close contacts linked to the Holiday Inn Hotel cluster.

Remember, this is the same system that was using pens, paper and fax machines to complete the tracing, in some cases taking up to two weeks to get in touch with everyone. Despite assurances that it has been improved, the evidence is clear: it hasn’t. Why else would we be in lockdown?

One might argue that Andrews is subject to the systems around him. Well, he was health minister during the Brumby Labor government, and his party has been in power for 17 of the last 21 years. If the system is failing, then his party is responsible for that very system.

And so we are in lockdown.

Again.

Andrews has panicked, and once more, like helpless minions to their almighty, Victorians bear the cost of his incompetence.

Hearts go out to the wedding venues who were forced to cancel functions at the last minute. To the florists preparing for weddings and for Valentine’s Day, the lockdown announcement must have been a stake in the heart, their livelihoods once again shattered, perhaps irreparably.

Yet Andrews stands up there, defiant, shifting blame to anyone and anything but himself and his government.

It is a disgrace.

A few days ago, he tried to pin blame on a man currently in ICU for using a nebuliser at the hotel. Andrews suggested that this fellow must have smuggled it into the hotel. Yet it was then revealed that the man was given permission by authorities to use the device that most likely was responsible for spreading the aerosols through the building.

Andrews’ response? To deny he had suggested anything of the sort and to deflect blame to the head of the agency in charge.

Victorians have every right to be livid. To be furious.

Yet what is even more insulting is the dullards who bow at his feet, sing his praises, and insist he is doing a good job.

“Thanks for keeping us safe, Dan.”

“You’re doing a great job, Dan.”

#istandwithdan

Like, you have to be f*****g kidding me. You can almost picture these sycophants in a dark corner of their room, rocking back and forth, repeating to themselves, “Dan is doing good job,” “Dan is doing good job,” “Dan is doing good job.”

Try telling that to the latest business owner forced to declare bankruptcy, or to the parent of a young primary school student preparing for the dread of home schooling again, or to the families of those who have since contracted the virus.

The fact Andrews is still our Premier is an insult to every Victorian. He must resign.

Some might ask, replace him with who? Well, the sad fact is that an election is not until November, 2022. The government is not going to change. But even Andrews’ ministers have indicated that power is too centralised around the Premier. It is entirely possible that Andrews is the handbrake on this government that needs to be released for it to function competently.

But that’s not what his army of followers will tell you.

Not at all. In fact, the loyal leftists are getting to work, shifting gears, changing the narrative.

Where is Scotty? They ask indignantly.

Apparently he should be in charge of quarantine.

Funny how things have changed.

Remember the Prime Minister’s early press conferences last year when these same people demanded that Morrison defer responsibility to the premiers.

Well, that’s exactly what happened. The premiers wanted control of hotel quarantine, so they got it.

And most have succeeded at implementing it, apart from one.

It indeed has been an interesting turn of events. In their desperation to defend their man, the leftists now demand that hotel quarantine move to offshore detention. Suddenly, without a hint of self-awareness, the bleeding hearts who have lectured us about the inhumanity of detention centres now want hard borders and isolated detainees. Never mind past principles, a fellow comrade needs saving.

This entire saga has been awfully revealing.

Victorians are learning in the harshest way possible what the consequences of woke government can be. We might have diversity quotas and government sanctioned BLM protests on tap, but we have a devastated economy, a scared populace and a broken and inefficient system incapable of keeping people safe.

And all of it has been overseen by the man the left worships.

Dan Andrews.

He must resign.

Not only for the good of Victoria, but for the country.