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Dan is dead
- Thread starter LeeToRainesToRoach
- Start date
Injured Daniel Andrews urged to talk about long recovery (paywalled)
An injured Dan Andrews is being urged by friends to publicly outline the progress of his recovery in the lead-up to his return to work by the end of this month.
The Victorian Premier’s long absence from work has sparked a series of false or unsubstantiated rumours about how his injuries happened. It is believed Mr Andrews is planning to address the community about his injuries but is unlikely to directly discuss Liberal Party attacks about where he was injured.
The rumours have escalated during the fourth lockdown, fuelled by the Liberal Party and disaffected business people.
Victoria’s state opposition on Monday ramped up their attacks against Mr Andrews, demanding more details about the circumstances which led him to take 91 days of sick leave, questioning how much he was being paid.
Opposition Treasury spokeswoman Louise Staley said Mr Andrews owed Victorians answers to “simple questions” about his early March injury, when he suffered five broken ribs and a compression fracture on his T7 vertebra while with his family in the Mornington Peninsula.
“Victorians need honesty and transparency from Daniel Andrews about the circumstances of his injury. Everyone is entitled to privacy about their health, but these questions are not about the nature of his injuries, only how he got those injuries,” she said. “If there is no cover-up then there is no reason not to provide answers to these simple questions.”
Ms Staley has outraged Labor MPs with her statement, which appears to have been provoked by either wrong or unsubstantiated claims made against Mr Andrews.
Mr Andrews did not comment on Monday.
Ms Staley said Mr Andrews should not continue to get paid for a “job he is not doing”, after she said he had pocketed $110,000 during his time off.
She also said that the Premier’s office should reveal more details including the time of the incident, who owned the property at which it occurred, whether or not police were contacted, and if they conducted an interview with Mr Andrews.
An injured Dan Andrews is being urged by friends to publicly outline the progress of his recovery in the lead-up to his return to work by the end of this month.
The Victorian Premier’s long absence from work has sparked a series of false or unsubstantiated rumours about how his injuries happened. It is believed Mr Andrews is planning to address the community about his injuries but is unlikely to directly discuss Liberal Party attacks about where he was injured.
The rumours have escalated during the fourth lockdown, fuelled by the Liberal Party and disaffected business people.
Victoria’s state opposition on Monday ramped up their attacks against Mr Andrews, demanding more details about the circumstances which led him to take 91 days of sick leave, questioning how much he was being paid.
Opposition Treasury spokeswoman Louise Staley said Mr Andrews owed Victorians answers to “simple questions” about his early March injury, when he suffered five broken ribs and a compression fracture on his T7 vertebra while with his family in the Mornington Peninsula.
“Victorians need honesty and transparency from Daniel Andrews about the circumstances of his injury. Everyone is entitled to privacy about their health, but these questions are not about the nature of his injuries, only how he got those injuries,” she said. “If there is no cover-up then there is no reason not to provide answers to these simple questions.”
Ms Staley has outraged Labor MPs with her statement, which appears to have been provoked by either wrong or unsubstantiated claims made against Mr Andrews.
Mr Andrews did not comment on Monday.
Ms Staley said Mr Andrews should not continue to get paid for a “job he is not doing”, after she said he had pocketed $110,000 during his time off.
She also said that the Premier’s office should reveal more details including the time of the incident, who owned the property at which it occurred, whether or not police were contacted, and if they conducted an interview with Mr Andrews.
ahahaha Herald Sun, that's a good one. I don't take their word for it either. Who's the author (paywalled)?
It's the same as Trump's "people are saying". ie. it has no foundation - it's rumours started by those who want to spread disinformation.
Oh I thought the Dan is Dead thing was totally non-political, all good harmless tongue-in-cheek fun
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is that their political equivalent of Mark Robinson, Chief Football Writer?
It is bewildering to me that even breaking his back has drawn criticism from some people.
If he rescued puppies in his downtime the Herald Sun would start a campaign against the rising number of feral dogs in our neighbourhoods.
If he rescued puppies in his downtime the Herald Sun would start a campaign against the rising number of feral dogs in our neighbourhoods.
I don't think that rag The Australian is Dan's friend so I reckon it is stretching credulity to claim his friends are asking him to explain what happened. I note too that all the quotes in the above article are from Liberals, who may well be friends at work, but remain political opponents.
We know what the injuries were and we know it will take time for him to recover. Sensationalist crap from the Murdoch press is always best ignored and when they are trying to create a scandal even more so. As Brodders points out, the calibre of their high ranking journos is woeful.
I actually saw the HUN on Sunday as we had the wrong paper delivered, I don't know how anyone puts up with that crap. it takes about 5 minutes to read and is full of half truths and extreme right opinion pieces.
DS
We know what the injuries were and we know it will take time for him to recover. Sensationalist crap from the Murdoch press is always best ignored and when they are trying to create a scandal even more so. As Brodders points out, the calibre of their high ranking journos is woeful.
I actually saw the HUN on Sunday as we had the wrong paper delivered, I don't know how anyone puts up with that crap. it takes about 5 minutes to read and is full of half truths and extreme right opinion pieces.
DS
Silence on Daniel Andrews fall only makes for mystery (paywalled)
Recovering from a fractured vertebra is no fun.
Jockey Corey Brown smashed two of them in a race fall in March 2019.
For two years, Brown harboured hopes of a return to the saddle, before undergoing spinal fusion surgery – and announcing his retirement – to ease the ”unbearable” suffering.
Premier Dan Andrews and his North Face jacket have been benched since he fell and fractured his T7 vertebra (as Brown did) 91 days ago.
Andrews was unsighted for the state budget, then the announcement and management of the city’s fourth lockdown. No longer, as he liked to say day in and day out, were we “in this together”.
For a “quintessentially political animal”, as a political scientist once labelled Andrews, his choice of silence seemed odd. Has he been in terrible pain? Almost certainly. Chronic pain sours the rosiest bearing. Raging chronic pain shreds the indomitable.
Yet 45 days can count as years in political terms, if not decades in a crisis. Andrews, or his army of advisers, posted no happy snaps in this time. There were no media interviews with doctors. No health updates.
Andrews resisted posting messages of thanks or support. He didn’t want to share. He did not challenge rampaging theories about the nature of his fall, which was addressed in a few lines soon after his March accident.
Rumours have predictably flooded the information vacuum. They have been largely unkind and defamatory.
People hadn’t heard this or that; instead, in fevered chatter, they “knew” that dodgy A plus iffy B explained Andrews’ radio silence.
They reviewed ancient history, and perceived holes in the presented narrative, to mount arguments about underhandedness and deceit.
The lack of their publication in mainstream press goes to the slipperiness of such claims. They could be entirely untrue. But they don’t explain Andrews’ decision to withdraw entirely from public view.
Apart from a couple of inconsequential tweets in recent days, Dan has enjoyed a Where’s Wally status of will he or won’t he, of what happened and what will happen. His absence has widened the divide for a divisive figure, and festered as another point of suspicion for a government that serves a largely suspicious electorate.
Andrews’ ubiquity through the prolonged crisis engendered stridency. He was the saviour or the culprit. Victoria’s Covid numbers, though breathtakingly high when compared with other states, sit kindly in the international order of despair.
Yet Andrews gave us private security for hotel quarantine, a grim reaper’s stroke of poor policy. He imbued a societal gloom that other states have avoided.
All governments keep secrets, especially those long in power. The Andrews government has repeatedly offered a take on events that smudges with realities it has sought to conceal. Mantras of transparency and accountability belie a recurring theme. With Andrews, there’s a view that there is more to the political story, and the motives at play, than what he sometimes presents.
Everything good or poor has centred on Andrews alone in six years as leader. He has been a Bob Dylan of politics in Australia, a lone figure who plays piano and harmonica, while writing lyrics delivered in a voice that stamps the times.
They might have been a changing when health minister Jenny Mikakos resigned and suggested we treat Andrews’ version of failings with caution. Yet it didn’t matter. Andrews was a one-man band. He wasn’t going anywhere.
If we accept the official version, Andrews has been in constant contact with his fill-in, James Merlino. Indeed, it sounds like Merlino gets the phone call three or four times a day, the kind of frequency that might inspire a derogatory name change on the receiver’s phone.
ALP ministers are said to have relished the freshly consultative processes under Merlino. Yet the handling of this lockdown, compared with the first three, bears similarities to the Andrews embodiment of government.
Health and political imperatives have blended. The supercharged rhetoric of virus variants and their virulence has scared the bejesus out of parts of the electorate.
The Kappa variant, as it’s now known, was called a “beast” by chief health officer Brett Sutton, which limits labels for the more dangerous strain, known as Delta, which has since been identified in Melbourne.
We were spared some of the pettier restrictions of previous lockdowns, such as night curfews and the keeping apart of loved ones. Merlino has had one big advantage, of course. He boasts contact tracing teams that have not been engulfed by case numbers and paperwork.
Invisibility of an Australian politician, as Andrews has chosen, is almost unprecedented.
The most notable absence was Adair Blain, who was given leave from 1943-45. He had a good excuse – he was a prisoner of war.
In 1903, Senator John Ferguson, who was seriously ill, lost his seat after he was absent without leave for two months.
When Andrews returns, he will take back control of a crisis that will run for years. Will he address the black hole of his absence, or will he dismiss it as a no-go zone so that it thrives as one of many?
"Rumours have predictably flooded the information vacuum" - from the above diatribe.
So the HUN is now reporting the rumours it starts, yeah, newspaper of record, such high standards of journalism.
The HUN, along with everything else from the Murdoch stable, are just a right wing cheer squad looking to promote their right wing agenda. The above is a waste of newsprint and a waste of pixels.
DS
So the HUN is now reporting the rumours it starts, yeah, newspaper of record, such high standards of journalism.
The HUN, along with everything else from the Murdoch stable, are just a right wing cheer squad looking to promote their right wing agenda. The above is a waste of newsprint and a waste of pixels.
DS
As far as I can tell they haven't published the rumours. They're merely reporting the existence of the rumours. Unavoidable when the state leader is AWOL for a full quarter and counting.
Don't you think it's odd we've seen nothing but written statements in three months? Or has Dan transcended earthly realms to become godlike in your estimation? It doesn't matter that you can't see him, it's enough to know he's there?
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With a broken back...
If facts are something you will let in Lee, read the paramedics report.
If only we wouldnt see Morrison for 3 months, but only see written statements of actual work he is doing.
