You might be as surprised as me to learn that some insiders are making harsh criticisms of Dan the Man. The thing is, you would never have predicted it, not in a thousand years.
“Former Labor minister Adem Somyurek has escalated his attack on Premier Dan Andrews saying he doesn't "listen or respect" his own Cabinet, treats Parliament as a "nuisance" and should not be trusted with sweeping new powers under the pandemic legislation.
"A Premier that doesn’t listen to or much respect his own Cabinet, that doesn’t heed warnings from his Caucus, that treats the Parliament as an inconvenient nuisance is not really envisaged in the design of our system," he told The Australian on Thursday.
"The checks and balances built into the Victorian system of government aren’t working.
"After more than a year of bipartisan support during the pandemic, more than 26 of the 50 state legislatures in the US are fighting back against the executive by diluting their emergency powers.
"Now is not a time to exploit the democratic deficit in our parliamentary system of responsible government and seek to legitimise rule by decree."
Mr Somyurek – the one-time party powerbroker Mr Andrews described as his "good friend" just a few years ago – said Labor figures had been privately lobbying him to drop his opposition to the Bill since it emerged on Wednesday night that he would vote against it.
But the Upper House MP brushed aside the desperate pleas, saying his concerns about the lack of oversight and scrutiny contained in the proposed legislation meant he could not support it.
"I know many Victorians have felt powerless victims of the state these last two years," he said.
"The good intentions of keeping Victorians safe sadly paved the way to over-reach, one-man tut-tutting government by decree and ill-considered plans to make it all permanent, without safeguards.
"One vote on one Bill by one MP won’t change the sense of powerlessness and disenfranchisement so many feel. But I hope my vote sends even a small signal of hope to those who’ve lost faith in the democratic process, among those who’ve become convinced “the system” has failed and that they weren’t ever going to get a fair hearing from those in charge."”