Letter to the Editor - Geelong Advertiser - 19 September 2020

As published by the Geelong Advertiser on the 19th September 2020

WORDS EXPOSE THE AGENDA OF COLUMNIST

MR Mueller’s opinion piece (GA 17/9) has proved to be the most wonderful conclusion to a little social science experiment I conducted on Twitter last weekend. So much so, that I want to thank him for using his column to highlight it.

My thesis for this experiment was that Premier Dan Andrews’ supporters are wilfully blind to clear facts and because of this, they can be likened to anti-vaccine supporters, who similarly only see facts that support their point of view.

I never said they were the same people or shared beliefs, simply they share an aversion to facts.

As you can see from Mr Mueller’s personal attack, the question sent the self-proclaimed #IstandwithDan crowd into apoplexy and online they were rabid. They are so fervent in their defence of the Premier, that they couldn’t see they had missed the whole point of the post.

There are enough facts known about Victoria’s response that establishes several things:

VICTORIA’S second wave happened because the governance of hotel quarantine fundamentally failed, and ultimately, good governance is what governments are supposed to provide;

EVEN the Premier can’t say who made the decision to use security guards. So it begs the question, who was in charge and why won’t anyone own up?;

THE wave got out of control because Victoria’s contact tracing could not contain it. The #IstandwithDan crowd argue that tracing is very difficult when you have 700+cases — which is true. This is why it is vital to be able to trace effectively when you have a handful of cases, so it doesn’t get to 700 — as NSW’s record has shown it is possible to do;

IF you can’t contain the virus like others have done, you must resort to lockdown. Make no mistake though, lockdown is a very blunt, costly and damaging alternative; and,

NSW’S exemplary public health system disproves #IstandwithDan crowd’s theory that Dan was simply “unlucky”. Surely Victorians deserve as much as our northern cousins?

As a senator for Victoria, my role is to stand up for Victoria and Victorians no matter for what or against whom. While it is true Premier Andrews and I represent very different ideologies, my complaint it not against his politics but his performance. As the job figures released yesterday demonstrate, his mistakes have visited massive damage on the Victorian economy and the people that are part of it.

Anyone who cares to look at Mr Mueller’s Twitter can see that politically attacking the Coalition is his full-time job. He is nothing but a Labor hack and the fact he has a regular column in this fine paper should give pause to all the Murdoch conspiracy theorists that listen to Mueller’s dog whistle. David Van, Senator for Victoria