Dan Andrews statue labelled a waste of money by ex-Liberal premier
Victorians will pay more than $134,000 for a statue of former premier Daniel Andrews, the state government announced on Friday.
The decision was met with pushback from former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.
Speaking on Friday, Victorian premier Jacinta Allan said her government was “following the policy put in place by the previous premier, Jeff Kennett”, the ABC reported.
In 1999 Mr Kennett introduced a policy to allow Victorian prime ministers who served more than 3000 days in office to be recognized with a statue.
However, he said that this statue was a “waste of money”.
“I would like it to be red as a reminder of the debt it creates to society,” Mr Kennett told the Herald Sun.
“This means they’re so convinced they can’t win the election anymore that they’re trying to bring this up and I don’t know if they’re bringing it up knowing we wouldn’t be wasting this money if there was a change of government.”
The Herald Sun reported that Mr Kennett said the statue should feature Mr Andrews’ face mask.
In a sassy post on social media, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said her party would “move the new Daniel Andrews statue to a dedicated Museum of Underwater Art in Antarctica”.
The official cost of the statue is $134,304 and it will be commissioned by Meridian Sculpture.
It is not yet known what the statue will look like.
There are now four other statues of former prime ministers outside Treasury Place: John Cain Jr, Rupert Hamer, Henry Bolte and Albert Dunstan.
Mr Andrews served as premier of Victoria from December 2014 to September 2023, leading the state through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Age previously labeled him “the most dominant political figure of his generation in Victoria” following a landslide second consecutive election victory in 2022.
