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Victorian Political Dystopia is a spin-off article series based on The Unshackled’s Victorian Crime Dystopia article series. This series documents the dystopian political environment the Andrews Government has created in Victoria during its time in power, especially during its coronavirus lockdowns.

The 2022 Victorian state election votes are still being counted though it has been clear since Election Night that the Dan Andrews-led Labor Government will rule Victorians for a third 4-year term. Dan has pledged to serve the full term. By Easter next year he will be Labor’s longest-serving Premier and have a bronze statue erected in his honour.

The result wasn’t a Danslide nor a Danlash. Labor’s primary vote dropped by almost 6%, the two-party preferred swing against Labor to the Coalition is 3.5%. The most significant swings away from Labor (but not great enough for them to lose them) were in its safe seats in Melbourne’s North and West who suffered during Dan’s lockdown. Though Labor did record swings toward them in Melbourne’s middle-class east who could all work from home during lockdown where they picked up 2 seats.

The result of where the swings were in the 88 lower house seats means the makeup of Victoria’s Legislative Assembly won’t significantly change. Labor’s seat total will be in the 50s, the Coalition’s in the high 20s, and the Greens 4.

In his victory speech on Election Night, Dan clearly believed the results were a vindication by the Victorian public of his covid lockdown and vaccine mandate policies. Dan claimed Victorians were united in their faith in science and vaccines because vaccines work. He ironically claimed that his policies saw kindness, compassion and care and declared that hope always defeats hate.

Implied in Dan’s victory speech is that he would do lockdowns, masks, vaccine mandates and passports all over again in the event of another pandemic or health emergency. For those who suffered, and lost jobs, businesses, friendships, and relationships because of Dan’s covid decrees over the past two and half years this was a terrifying speech.

Now that the election is over and Dan has retained his majority government in the lower house and will likely have enough progressive votes in the upper house what will 4 more years of Dan bring? Will any covid rules return given we are in a new wave of cases with many more future waves to come? Possibly though new covid rules would likely only be implemented if there was a National Cabinet consensus.

Dan will certainly implement his cornerstone election promises to build the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) and revive the State Electricity Commission (SEC). Not many disagree about the need for new infrastructure around Victoria, anyone who commutes to work will tell you gridlock has returned. The problem with Andrews Government’s Big Build program has been cost blowouts caused in part by sweetheart deals with its union mates. SRL hasn’t even begun constriction but its cost has already blown out from $50 billion to $125 billion.

Victorians not getting value for money in infrastructure projects is a major contributor to the state’s high debt which currently stands at $100 billion which is larger than the combined total debt of NSW, Queensland and Tasmania. Victoria’s stated debt is projected to be $166 billion in 2026 when the Andrews Government next faces re-election. Dan promised Victorians debt-funded freebies in the election campaign including free kinder, free TAFE, free tampons for women and another round of $250 household energy payments.

Dan Andrews’s revival of SEC to power Victoria by renewal energy will increase household energy prices even higher. Dan’s campaign slogan for the SEC was ‘government-owned renewable energy for people, not profit‘ which is almost identical to the various Australian socialist parties’ slogans ‘people before profits’. Dan has been a lifelong member of Labor’s Socialist Left faction and renationalizing the electricity supply has long been a dream of theirs.

What will Dan’s social agenda be in the next 4 years? At his press conference the day after the Election Dan declared ‘Massachusetts is the Victoria of the United States. We are very clear about that. We are a progressive state’. The new Liberal Opposition will likely lurch further to left believing it to be the viable strategy to make them electable in 2026

Cultural Marxist programs like Safe Schools and Respectful Relationships will remain and no future Liberal-run state government will remove them. In the last parliament, Dan’s government passed a so-called ‘conversion therapy’ ban which criminalized all conservations discussing if someone’s homosexuality or transgenderism could change. They also passed a gender self-ID law allowing any Victorian to change their gender to whatever they want every 12 months.

A bi-partisan restriction on speech passed this year banning the public display of the Nazi Swastika with a maximum penalty of twelve months in prison and/or a $22k fine. Not passed during Dan’s second term was Fiona Patten’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Amendment Bill which aims to expand Victoria’s vilification characteristics from race and religion to cover gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics with a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment.

Dan will continue to be able to stack the public service with his mates and allies as he has done with WorkSafe Victoria and Victoria Police. 6 IBAC investigations into his government’s misconduct are still ongoing. Now that the election is over will he provide them with the funding they have requested to properly investigate his government? Don’t count on it.

Many residents of Victoria have already fled the state during Dan’s 6 lockdowns which totaled 262 days in Melbourne spread out over 2020 and 2021. Many more will leave at the end of this year and next year following the underwhelming performance of the freedom parties contesting Victoria’s Upper House. Counting is still continuing but current projections have only One Nation and the Democratic Labor Party winning a seat each.

Dan Andrews will have a workable crossbench in the 40-member Legislative Council with his Labor MLCs, the Greens, and likely Animal Justice and Legalise Cannabis giving him a majority of votes. Legalising medical and recreational cannabis could be a progressive reform Dan enacts in his third term as part of crossbench negotiations.

The long-term consequence of more freedom-minded people and families leaving Victoria is that in future state and federal elections those who remain in Victoria are more likely to favour and benefit from big government and socialist policies so the value and power of their vote will increase. Victoria is more likely to become like California and New York rather than Massachusetts as democratic one-party states whose standard of living and safety is rapidly declining.

Elections have consequences and it could be another long four years for those who suffered under Dan’s previous four years. Dan claimed he wanted to govern for all Victorians in his victory speech including those who didn’t vote for him, this is unlikely with Dan’s history of frequent lies. Nobody knows what the next four years will bring in Victoria, nobody knew what the previous four years would bring. But what is certain with Dan Andrews remaining as Victoria’s Premier is that the decline in freedom and prosperity here will continue.

Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
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Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.