About two months after a trip to China without being accompanied by Australian media, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews is at it again.
Well, that’s news.
Andrews reportedly attended the Post-Pandemic China-Australia Economic Cooperation Forum at Melbourne’s Park Hyatt on Monday with only Chinese media permitted.
When asked about what he thought about the lack of media and whether he would provide the notes of his speech, he in effect dismissed the idea claiming that he “didn’t use notes”.
Ah yes, but he could still report on what happened. Notice that he doesn’t offer that.
As for the lack of media presence, the premier, to be fair, was not the organizer of the event. But again, his response is conveniently dismissive.
“Is there even a need to ask me whether I support the media having access to me?” he asked. “I’ve done more press conferences than most, perhaps more than anyone.”
That may not be a lie but the only reason he’s done “more press conferences than most” is because he made COVID-19 sound like Ebola, then mandated lockdowns and vaccines which he didn’t have to.
It’s not the quantity of press exposure that is the problem, it’s that the issues that need to be covered… well, need to be covered. In other words, it’s the usual deliberate confusion between quantity, quality and necessity.
Of course, if one wants a clue as to what the premier is thinking.
“It was an important event … They [China] are our biggest trading partner. If you’ve got a bad relationship with your biggest customer, your business has got real problems.”
Setting aside that trading suffered in Victoria during the lockdowns, one might be tempted to think that the Victorian premier’s “biggest customer” is the people of Victoria.
But that might actually make sense then and we can’t have that.
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