“Daniel Andrews may have resigned but his influence looms large over Victoria – a state he fundamentally transformed for the worse. Recording what happened under Andrews’ regime is key to restoring good government and reveals to all Australians the danger of going down the same dark path,” said Morgan Begg, Director of Research at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Today, the Institute of Public Affairs launched a groundbreaking new book, The Dark Legacy of Daniel Andrews: Assessing the Social and Economic Costs of Australia’s Most Controversial Premier.
The book features contributions from Adam Creighton, Professor Mirko Bagaric, Professor Gigi Foster, John Lloyd, and Peter Jennings, and details the long-standing consequences of Daniel Andrews, who ruled Victoria from 2014 to 2023.
“Daniel Andrews was not just a successful electoral politician. He was a tectonic political figure whose premiership fundamentally reshaped the state to enable the exercise of untrammelled power through a complacent media, a cowed business community, and a politicised public sector,” Mr Begg said.
“To date, our community has not seen promised Royal Commissions and independent investigations into actions of the Andrews government materialise or fully expose the behaviour of the period. This research goes someway to ensuring that this period is never forgotten.”
“At the conclusion of Andrews’ near decade in power, he left behind a state with diminished respect for personal and political freedoms, the dramatic expansion of government, and calamitous public finances and towering debt that may never be repaid,” Mr Begg said.
The Institute of Public Affairs’ research and analysis shows that while Victoria had for many decades been the economic and cultural centre of Australia, the Andrews era has ended this once and for all, with future generations to be beholden to foreign debt obligations.
“All critical indicators of financial management, such as debt, taxation, public sector growth, and regulation, reveal Victoria has become the worst performing state by a wide and growing margin,” Mr Begg said.
“Victoria is less democratic than it was ten years ago. It is less free than it was ten years ago. And it is less prosperous than it was ten years ago. It is critical that this does not become the new normal. Victoria must change course.”
The lesson of Daniel Andrews’ dark legacy is critical for every Australian, not just Victorians. So too are the lessons around the demise of the state of Victoria, which will likely need to be bailed out by the federal government and therefore at the expense of taxpayers around the country.
“The challenge of the total economic collapse of the state in the early 1990s pales into insignificance when compared to the challenge of recovering from the disastrous Daniel Andrews era,” Mr Begg said.
“For Australia to be prosperous, Victoria must be strong – the dark legacy of Daniel Andrews is that Victoria has never been closer to being a failed state than it is today.”
The Dark Legacy of Daniel Andrews: Assessing the Social and Economic Costs of Australia’s Most Controversial Premier is available at the Connor Court Publishing website and in all good bookstores.
