Former premier recognised for service to public health

He was recognised "for eminent service to the people and Parliament of Victoria, to public health, to policy and regulatory reform, and to infrastructure development".

Mr Andrews was arguably Australia's most prominent political figure at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But eight months on from his departure from the state's top job on September 27, 2023, his weighty legacy is far from settled in the minds of many.

ACM recounts some of the decisions and controversy that shaped his tenure as Victoria's longest-serving Labor premier.

"Everyone right to go?"

The premier started his COVID-19 press conferences the same way every time, for 120 days straight.

Through the darkest days of the pandemic in Victoria, Mr Andrews was a dominant daily presence.

The marathon of appearances was typical of his work ethic and single-mindedness, but also his political savvy.

Fronting up day after day, Mr Andrews circumvented the media, speaking directly to Victorians, as well as controlling the sound bites that would fill radio, television and newspaper headlines.

It was a crucial move as the premier plunged the state into the world's longest lockdown.

Throughout the 906-day pandemic Melbourne endured six lockdowns and seven in regional Victoria, including a ring of steel between metropolitan and regional areas.

Victorians had only four reasons to leave home: buying food and essentials, getting medical care, exercise, and work or education for a select few. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine jab became a fifth reason in later lockdowns.

The state spent a world-record 262 days locked down, including 111 consecutive days in the second lockdown, also a record.

"There are no alternatives to lockdown," Mr Andrews said when announcing Melbourne's sixth and final stay at home order.

"If you wait, it'll spread. And once it spreads, you can never even hope to run alongside it, let alone get out in front of it and bring it back down to zero."

But despite having the strongest public health measures in the country, and arguably the world, Victoria recorded more COVID-19 deaths than any other state.

The state has recorded 9,367 deaths ahead of NSW on 7,748 and Queensland on 3,375.

A hotel quarantine breach that triggered Victoria's devastating "second wave" contributed to the deaths of 800 people.

Poorly trained private security guards watching over quarantined travellers failed to follow hygiene protocols and inadvertently released COVID-19 into the community.

As well as deaths, the breach triggered lockdowns and raised questions over who was in charge of adequately training security guards in public health measures.

Despite a parliamentary inquiry led by former judge Jennifer Coate, the question went unanswered.

Mr Andrews said the buck stopped with health minister Jenny Mikakos, who was forced to resign. She accused the premier of providing "a masterclass in political deflection".

The premier's lockdowns may have saved many lives, but they came at a significant cost.

The state spent $40.1 billion on pandemic measures between 2019-20 and 2022-23, including $21.2 billion on economic, business and worker support, $16.3 billion to keep the health system alive and $2.6 billion to support Victorian households.

It has left the state with a generational debt, costing the government millions of dollars a day in interest payments.

In his final budget as premier in 2023, Mr Andrews launched a plan to pay back the debt, led by hefty new taxes on landlords and big business.

But a year on, the state's finances are no closer to getting out of the red, thanks in part to the lingering costs of Mr Andrews' other multi-billion-dollar budget item: Melbourne infrastructure projects.

One of Mr Andrews' first acts as premier in 2015 was to axe a major infrastructure project, the Coalition's East West Link tunnel underneath Melbourne's inner north.

The cancellation cost taxpayers $1.1 billion but the premier said the $18 billion project didn't stack up.

Over the next seven years he has embarked on a "Big Build" at a cost of at least $65 billion, amid projects that have suffered regular cost blow outs:

The Suburban Rail Loop, which has been put on hold, was most recently estimated to cost $216 billion to build and operate.

He also cancelled the Commonwealth Games. "What has become clear is that the cost of hosting these Games in 2026 is not the $2.6 billion which was budgeted... it is in fact at least $6 billion and could be as high as $7 billion," he said on July 18, 2023. That cancellation cost taxpayers $589 million, according to the Victorian Auditor-General's Office.

Mr Andrews is most strongly associated with his pandemic role and Big Build, but he drove a strong, progressive policy agenda.

Victoria was the first state to introduce voluntary assisted dying, which has now been rolled out across Australia.

The state also remains the only jurisdiction to launch a royal commission into family violence and outspends all the other states combined to tackle violence against women.

Mr Andrews also brought in safe zones around abortion clinics and apologised to gay men and women for historical convictions under anti-gay laws.

Mr Andrews left the political scene a towering figure.

While he bristled at the accusation he had politicised the public service, the premier's private office doubled in size over his tenure and "want[ed] to get involved in every decision" made by the government.

Mr Andrews was also at the helm when several scandals emerged in his eight years in office, including claims of branch stacking and the alleged misuse of public funds in the "Red Shirts" scandal.

He was increasingly criticised by IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich and spent more than $1 million challenging Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass to prevent an independent investigation of the Red Shirts scandal.

In early 2024 he took his first steps outside of politics, starting two companies as sole director, while in May his consultancy partnered with mining magnate Twiggy Forrest with plans to sell "green iron" to China.