Daniel Andrews, who has announced he will step down after nearly nine years as premier, leaves office as a titan of Victorian politics. An activist premier, a gifted political communicator and a hard man of politics, he has been an enormously consequential leader and one of national significance. He is the fourth-longest serving premier in Victorian history, and the longest-serving Labor premier.
While his government has had more than its share of controversies, such as the so called “red shirts” scandal and, more recently, the debacle of the cancelled 2026 Commonwealth Games, Andrews will nonetheless be remembered as a progressive premier whose social reforms and massive infrastructure program have transformed the state.
And he was enormously successful with it, winning three elections, most recently another landslide victory in November 2022. Over that time, he has dominated his party and the state. And even after nine years in office, recent opinion polls have still shown his government enjoying a commanding lead over the opposition.
