The Honourable Daniel Andrews MP
48th Premier of Victoria Elections: 2014, 2018
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 December 2014
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor	Alex Chernov Linda Dessau
Deputy	James Merlino
Preceded by	Denis Napthine
Leader of the Labor Party in Victoria
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 December 2010
Deputy	Rob Hulls James Merlino
Preceded by	John Brumby
Leader of the Opposition in Victoria
In office 3 December 2010 – 4 December 2014
Premier	Ted Baillieu Denis Napthine
Deputy	Rob Hulls James Merlino
Preceded by	Ted Baillieu
Succeeded by	Matthew Guy
Minister for Health
In office 3 August 2007 – 2 December 2010
Premier	John Brumby
Preceded by	Bronwyn Pike
Succeeded by	David Davis
Minister for Gaming
In office 1 December 2006 – 3 August 2007
Premier	Steve Bracks
Preceded by	John Pandazopoulos
Succeeded by	Tony Robinson
Minister for Consumer Affairs
In office 1 December 2006 – 3 August 2007
Premier	Steve Bracks
Preceded by	Marsha Thomson
Succeeded by	Tony Robinson
Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Mulgrave
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 November 2002
Preceded by	District re-established
Personal details
Born	Daniel Michael Andrews (1972-07-06) 6 July 1972 (age 46) Williamstown, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Labor Party
Spouse(s)	Catherine Andrews (m. 1998)
Children	3 (Joseph, Grace and Noah)
Alma mater	Monash University
Website	danielandrews.com.au

Daniel Michael Andrews (born 6 July 1972) is an Australian politician who is the 48th Premier of Victoria, a post he has held since 2014. He has been the leader of the Victorian branch of the Labor Party since 2010, and from 2010 to 2014 was Leader of the Opposition in that state. Andrews was elected member for the Legislative Assembly seat of Mulgrave at the 2002 election, and served as a parliamentary secretary and minister in the Bracks and Brumby Labor governments.^[1][2]
On 29 November 2014, he was elected Premier of Victoria after the ALP won the state election, defeating the incumbent Liberal government.^[3] On 24 November 2018, he was re-elected as Premier of Victoria when Victorian Labor won the 2018 election in a landslide.^[4]

Early life[edit]

Andrews was born in Williamstown, a suburb of Melbourne, to Bob Andrews (1950–2016) and Jan (born 1944). In 1983 his family moved to Wangaratta, where he was educated at the Marist Brothers' Galen Catholic College.^[1] Andrews moved back to Melbourne in 1990 to attend Monash University, where he was a resident of Mannix College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and classics in 1996. After graduating, Andrews became an electorate officer for federal Labor MP Alan Griffin. He worked at the party's head office from 1999 to 2002, initially as an organiser, and then as assistant state secretary.^[2]

Early political career (2002–2010)[edit]

Following his election to parliament in the Legislative Assembly seat of Mulgrave at the 2002 election, Andrews was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Health in the Steve Bracks Labor government. Following the 2006 election, Andrews was appointed to the Cabinet, becoming Minister for Gaming, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs. In 2007, Andrews became Minister for Health in the John Brumby Labor government.^[5]
In 2008, Andrews voted in favour of abortion law reform in Victoria.^[6]

As opposition leader (2010–2014)[edit]

Brumby resigned as leader of the Victorian Labor Party following the Labor defeat at the 2010 election, after 11 years of Labor governments. On 3 December 2010, Andrews was elected Victorian Labor Party leader, becoming Leader of the Opposition in Victoria, with former Deputy Premier Rob Hulls staying on as his deputy.^[7] Hulls resigned in early 2012 and was replaced as deputy by James Merlino.

Labor took the lead in the polls in mid-2012 and held it for all but a few months until the election, though Andrews consistently trailed his Liberal counterparts, Ted Baillieu (2010-2013) and Denis Napthine (2013-2014) as preferred premier.

Premier of Victoria (2014–present)[edit]

Labor held 43 seats at dissolution but notionally held 40 after the redistribution of electoral boundaries. It thus needed a swing to win five seats to form government. At the election, Labor gained seven seats for a total of 47, a majority of two.^[8] The election was the first time since 1955 that an incumbent government was removed from office after a single term.

In his victory speech, Andrews declared, "The people of Victoria have today given to us the greatest of gifts, entrusted to us the greatest of responsibilities and bestowed upon us the greatest of honours. We will not let them down!"^[9] He was sworn in as premier on 4 December.

On winning office, Andrews government cancelled the East West Link project and initiated the level crossing removal project and the Melbourne Metro Rail Project.

On 24 May 2016 Andrews made an official apology in parliament for gay men in Victoria punished during the time homosexuality was a crime in the state. It was decriminalised in 1981.^[10]

In August 2018 Andrews announced plans to build a $50 billion suburban rail loop connecting all major rail lines via Melbourne Airport.^[11]

At the 2018 state election, Labor won a comprehensive victory, picking up an eight-seat swing for a total of 55 seats, tying Labor's second-best seat count in Victoria. It is only the fifth time that a Labor government has been reelected in Victoria. Andrews thus joined John Cain Jr and Steve Bracks as the only Victorian Labor leaders to lead the party to a second term in government.

Andrews is one of the few state politicians in Australia to have never spent a day on the backbench. He has spent his entire tenure in the Legislative Assembly as a junior minister (2002-2006), minister (2006-2010), opposition leader (2010-2014) and premier (2014-present).

Ending ambulance dispute[edit]

Shortly after his taking office in 2014 Daniel Andrews ended the state government's dispute with ambulance paramedics.^[12] The dispute that had started with the previous state government did not go as far as strikes, due to the death toll that would result in such action. So the visible manifestation of the dispute was the protest style "colourful slogans"^[12] on the side and back windows of the state's ambulances, which were removed after Andrews promised to end the dispute.

Port of Melbourne lease[edit]

In September 2016, the Andrews Government privatised the Port of Melbourne for a term of 50 years in return for more than $9.7 billion.^[13]

Misuse of electoral officers[edit]

In September 2015, the Opposition announced it would refer the Andrews government to IBAC, the police, or a parliamentary enquiry over allegations that the Labor Party had misused taxpayer-funded electoral officers for party political campaigning in the leadup to the 2014 state election.^[14] After an eight month investigation, Victoria Police said no criminal offence had been committed.^[15] The Legislative Council referred the matter to the Victorian Ombudsman, after the Supreme Court confirmed it was within her jurisdiction, and the government lost several appeals against the referral.^[16]

In March 2018, the Ombudsman released a report stating that Victorian Labor had wrongly used $387,842 of staff budget entitlements during the election campaign, breaching guidelines for the use of electoral staff.^[17] The report identified 21 MPs (11 current MPs including six ministers) who had used the scheme, which had been devised by former Treasurer John Lenders. Andrews stated he was sorry the incidents had occurred, and that Labor had repaid the money.^[16] The investigation was reopened in July.^{[18][19][20][21]}

Euthanasia[edit]

On 20 September 2017, the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 was introduced into the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament by the Andrews Labor Government. The bill is modelled on the recommendations of an expert panel chaired by former Australian Medical Association president Professor Brian Owler. The proposed legislation was said by proponents to be the most conservative in the world and contain 68 safeguards including measures designed to protect vulnerable people from coercion and abuse, as well as a board to review each case.^[22]Labor and Coalition MPs were allowed a conscience vote on the Bill.^[23][24] The bill was debated in the lower house over three sitting days, passing the Assembly without amendment on 20 October 2017 after an emotional and tense debate^[25] which lasted more than 24 hours.^[26] The bill was passed by 47 votes to 37.^[27] The Bill finally passed through parliament, with amendments made in the Victorian Legislative Council, on 29 November 2017.^[28] In passing the bill, Victoria became the first state to legislate for voluntary assisted dying. The law, presuming it receives the formality of royal assent, will come into effect in mid-2019.^[28]

Personal life[edit]

Andrews married in 1998 and lives in Mulgrave with their three children. Andrews is a self-described devout and practising Roman Catholic. As Health Minister during the passing of the Abortion Law Reform Act 2008, Andrews sought counsel from senior church clergy who advised him that the act was contrary to Church teaching. Andrews replied that he "... did not intend to be a Catholic health minister. It was my intention to be a Victorian health minister".^[1] He is also known by the nickname "Dandrews" ^[29], a portmanteau of his first and last name.

See also[edit]

• Victorian state election, 2018

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Parliamentary voting record of Daniel Andrews at Victorian Parliament Tracker