In this interview, Morgan Begg appeared on Credlin Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research into the economic and societal decline of Victoria since 2014.
All media appearances posted onto the IPA website are directly related to the promotion and dissemination of IPA research.
Below is a transcript of the interview.
Peta Credlin:
Well, now to a new book launched tomorrow by me and I am delighted to launch this for the IPA. It’s about the social and economic costs of Australia’s most controversial premier. The book’s called The Dark Legacy of Daniel Andrews, and it argues that the former Labour leader reshaped the state through centralised power, ideological governance and policy overreach, which weakened democratic norms, blew out the debt and undermine the freedoms of Victorians.
Well, if you watched my show during COVID, absolutely no arguments from me. I’m pleased to say the bloke who edited the book, the director of research at the Institute of Public Affairs, Morgan Begg joins me now. I always say in politics that you might remember your enemy or your opponent, but eventually the voters move on. In part because to survive, they have to move on. And I think particularly for Victorians, there’s a whole lot of PTSD associated with that period, the worst of it, particularly during COVID with Daniel Andrews. So a book like this is so important to nail his rotten legacy to his political epitaph. Is that what drove you to pull this together?
Morgan Begg:
That’s exactly right. As you said, the last 10 years is a period that many Victorians will want to forget and with very good reason. But we actually do need to tell this story. Daniel Andrews accumulated a vast amount of political power and he used that to great effect to the extent that he exercised untrammelled power through a cowed business community, a demoralised opposition, a politicised public service. And the outcome of that is Victorians are less free than they were 10 years ago. They’re less prosperous than they were 10 years ago. And the state is less democratic than it was 10 years ago. We need to understand how we got here before we can get back on track. That’s the only way we’ll get back on track.
Peta Credlin:
The political animal in me is never just “attack my opponent because I don’t like their politics.” I try and be as analytical as I can in looking at how in this case he consolidated his power, his ruthlessness. I said last night on the show that they are the most professional political operation of labour machine in Victoria that I have ever seen. And I don’t look at it with admiration, but I do acknowledge what the centre right side of politics is up against in this state. And even though he has departed, he’s got his underling there in the premier’s job and she runs… Smilier face, sure, but she runs the show as he runs the show. In your book, you look at everything. You look at the economics, you look at the social, you look at the cultural, you look at the democratic. What do you think is the most destructive of his legacies?
Morgan Begg:
I think arguably it’s the reinvention and the reorganisation of the state around the premier’s office. You saw in this period… So just to go back, Daniel Andrews comes into power in 2014 in an unlikely victory, and he comes to office with a great deal of political capital and control over the Labour Party, and he uses that control quite ruthlessly to the extent that all decision making in that era came from the premier’s office.
Peta Credlin:
And he cut the knees out of the union. He cut the heads off colleagues. It wasn’t just-
Morgan Begg:
Exactly. It’s the colleagues-
Peta Credlin:
His opponents, he went after.
Morgan Begg:
Traditional cabinet government was dismantled. The role of an independent public service was dismantled. The role, even of the media through his belligerence and his weaponization of social media was defanged. The extent economic activity in this state is actually dependent on the government now because of the dramatic expansion of government spending and programmes.
Peta Credlin:
9 out of 10 jobs in Victoria being created are in the public sector.
Morgan Begg:
Exactly right. So the business community now, which might have been a sort of non-government check on power, they’ve been taken off the board as well. And so what we have now, we call it colloquially a one party state. That’s kind of the situation that we were put in by Daniel Andrews. And this is the world that we’re still living in. Yes, he’s gone, but the system he’s built is still there and it’s still being used.
Peta Credlin:
And with 16 seats to win, this will be the challenge for the Liberals because that system is in place to help Labour continually win the elections under this model. Where can people get this book if they want to read it?
Morgan Begg:
It’s available at all good bookstores and it was published by Connor Court Publishing, so available at their website and on Amazon and online bookstores.
Peta Credlin:
Well, I’m delighted to be launching it tomorrow, but I encourage Victorians read it and never forget.
Morgan Begg:
Absolutely. Thank you.
Peta Credlin:
Well done. Morgan, well done to the IPA too.
This transcript with Morgan Begg talking on Credlin Sky News Australia from 2 December 2025 has been edited for clarity.
