Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has copped a grilling on every single breakfast TV show this morning, a day after he announced Victoria would go back into Stage 3 lockdown.
On the Today Show, Karl Stefanovic ripped into Andrews over his government’s handling of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
“How could you blame Victorians yesterday for the outbreak when it was your government’s decision to employ an incompetent private security force to guard those in quarantine?” he asked.
“That’s an unbelievably catastrophic bungle right at the front door.”
Andrews said he wasn’t keen on playing the blame game.
Srefanovic went on to ask: “You have to have the answers in order to fix it, so why don’t you just tell people?”
“You talk about fear. If this gets right away from us then we’ll see some very ugly scenes, great tragedy, thousands of people in hospital, and many, many people dying.” Victorian premier Daniel Andrews on Melbourne going back into strict lockdown from midnight tonight. #9Today pic.twitter.com/nlt0qatOEz
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) July 7, 2020
The interview was pretty fiery the whole way through, ending with Stefanovic saying “it’s difficult to recall a bigger political bungle than this” and asking Andrews if he would resign on live TV.
Meanwhile, ABC News Breakfast also immediately called out Andrews for blaming people “acting as if the pandemic were over”, when his own government’s policies could be put in the same basket.
“I apologise for the position that we find ourselves in. I’m accountable as the leader of our state,” Andrews replied.
“This is not a popularity contest, it’s a pandemic. I don’t enjoy making these decisions and I’m furious about where we find ourselves.”
“I apologise for the position that we find ourselves in. I’m accountable as the leader of our state.”
Vic Premier @DanielAndrewsMP when asked about the hotel quarantine program and the state’s outbreak of new coronavirus cases. pic.twitter.com/0DnKsQjyok
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) July 7, 2020
Rounding out the trifecta with Sunrise, Andrews again apologised when Kochie asked him what went wrong.
“These quarantine hotels are like Victoria’s Ruby Princess aren’t they? It’s just disgraceful what’s gone on here,” Kochie said.
As with the other interviews, Andrews replied by saying the situation would be assessed by an independent parliamentary inquiry.
Not an easy morning for Dan, and something we may be seeing a lot more of this until shit gets back under control.
