He's gone but here's why he won't be forgotten in Wonthaggi

WHATEVER they say about Daniel Andrews and his legacy; the COVID lockdowns, the state’s ballooning debt, the Commonwealth Games debacle and all the rest; he loved Wonthaggi and he loved coming to Bass Coast.

This was confirmed by his staff on a visit to the town only last Friday.

Sure, much of that was about shoring up the most marginal electorate in the State, the District of Bass, but he took a liking to the place and the chance to do something profound for a burgeoning region on the fringe of the expanding Melbourne metropolitan area became part of his schtick.

Without his direct involvement, and the advocacy of the Labor Member for Bass, Jordan Crugnale, the new senior campus of the Bass Coast Secondary College at Wonthaggi and its new extension at San Remo would never have happened.

But without doubt, his crowning legacy locally is the new Wonthaggi hospital.

The $115 million Wonthaggi Hospital expansion project was completed in November 2022.

And in September 2022, as one of his party’s key election promises, he pledged a further $290 million to stage 2, with that promise now enshrined in the State Budget and future health planning.

It was only last Friday, September 22, on one of his final visits to regional Victoria, that Mr Andrews told the South Gippsland Sentinel-Times that the government was looking at making an early start on stage two, by authorizing the development of a new, higher-care level maternity department and other promised expansions of service within the empty shells built as a staging area for stage 1 and now offering additional capacity for the beginning of stage 2.

“We are looking very closely at whether we can, to fast-track that, yes,” said the Premier in Wonthaggi.

Such is his contribution to getting this vital piece of infrastructure here that it would not be out of the question for the completed Wonthaggi Hospital to be called ‘The Daniel Andrews Hospital’ at some point in the future although some on social media have questioned the idea.

Together with Ms Crugnale, a range of other projects have also been showered on Bass Coast including the Community Hospital on Phillip Island, school expansion, kindergartens, child care, recreation facilities and more.

As part of the $105.6 million investment into Victoria's Great Outdoors, the Victorian Government also created the new Yallock-Bulluk Marine and Coastal Park along the Bass Coast in 2021, with almost $20 million in funding announced for shared trails and conservation projects.

So, today, with the announcement that Premier Daniel Andrews is stepping down, Wonthaggi and Bass Coast generally is one place, at least, where they can point to a significant legacy in bricks and mortar and other improvements.

In announcing his retirement today, after nine years as Premier and 13 years as party leader, Mr Andrews said it was predominantly a decision he made with his family but that in recent days he had started to contemplate life after politics and as soon as he started to think that way, he knew it was time.

He said the job of premier required a 100% commitment and as a self-styled “worse than workaholic” he just knew it was time.

But as a "boy from the country" coming to Melbourne to try to do some good, he never in his wildest dreams imagined he would be accorded such a privilege as to lead the State.

“Well, I came to the decision fairly recently,” he told the assembled media at lunchtime today.

“I was very keen to get the housing statement done but I knew as we got to the final stages of that, that would perhaps be the last big reform that I did and ultimately once those thoughts of what it’d be like after what life has been after this role starts to creep in, you’ve got a really important choice to make. You either kind of push on and ultimately I think potentially resent the job and you just never want to do that. This is such a great honour and a privilege it’s a profound thing you never want to finish up in a situation where you aren’t enjoying the work where you are resentful of the fact that \you’re doing this or not doing something else.

“I’m not at that point, I’m determined never to get to that point and having made this decision today, not an easy decision, but a really important one I won’t get to that point.”

Mr Andrews said he frankly didn’t know what he would be doing next but it would involve a bit of family and me time, some golf and reading a pile of books in the corner that he hadn’t got to but ultimately he expected to be doing something to further support the great state of Victoria.

Last regional visit

Here's what the out-going premier had to say at the new Wonthaggi Hospital on one of his last regional visits last Friday:

“Well, it’s always a pleasure to be in Wonthaggi and to be here at Bass Coast Health with Jan Child and her team. First of all, can I acknowledge all of the health professionals that have joined us here today. We've got occupational therapists, nurses, junior doctors, the nurse unit manager who really runs the hospital. She's here as well. It’s a great pleasure to meet all of those staff and to take the opportunity to thank them, as well as the non-clinical staff because hospitals and health care is delivered by teams of people and they are the best of us and it's always a great, great privilege to be able to thank them personally and meet them and hear a little bit about their story, whether they've travelled from Melbourne out to the regions or indeed from other parts of the world.

“It's a great pleasure to be here and we thank them and ask them through their CEO, their outstanding co Jan, to pass on our thanks to all the members of the team here. This is of course a brand-new hospital. Stage one was completed late last year earlier this year, and officially opened. Stage two has been funded in the budget just as we said we would do at the election last year. This place has never looked better and can treat more patients and can provide better care.

“Ultimately, no one's ever had any problems with the quality of the care offered here at Bass Coast Health and the Wonthaggi hospital, but the quality of the buildings didn't match the quality of the care. Now those buildings are as good as the nurses and doctors and others and that means they can do more, and they can do better. And it's been pretty good for local jobs, too. There's been lots of local subbies working on this project and it's been a great delight to be able to visit at various milestones and I will make the point, none of this happens without Jordan Crugnale who is such a great champion for her local community, works hard and makes sure that our government understands the needs of Wonthaggi and Bass Coast more broadly and makes sure that we have a really strong agenda, so whether it's here in two stages, the school, so many other really important projects, it's all down to having a really strong local voice.

“Now I'm joined by Danny Pearson as well (Minister for Government Services, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Consumer Affairs, WorkSafe and the TAC), he's going to add to my comments in a moment, but you might ask why have we come to a hospital at the end of a week when we've been talking about housing, and we've released perhaps the biggest housing statement, the biggest shake up in one of the most important policy areas, certainly in my lifetime. It is a really important piece of work and it's been many months of work and we are grateful for all of our partners, whether it be those who represent tenants all the way through to those who build homes, and that development community. The affordability partnership that we signed just a couple of days ago is a really important first step to getting those 800,000 homes built over the next 10 years, 80,000 units each and every year, as well as reforms to clear the backlog of planning permits that are gathering dust all the way through to better design standards and adding to the already substantial reform that we've made to our Residential Tenancies system.

“Before I come to some of those issues, and ask Danny to speak in more detail as the relevant Minister, I just wanted to further explain why it is we're here. We're here because this health service spends about $750,000 a year to have 24 properties, 80 rooms every night that are essentially head-leased by the health service because there's simply not enough housing in Wonthaggi and the district to house all the staff that provide the health care that this local community needs."