Daniel Andrews has announced his resignation as Victorian premier after nearly nine years in the state’s top job.
On Tuesday, Andrews addressed the media outside parliament and said he would visit Government House and resign as premier and as the member for the state seat of Mulgrave effective as of 5pm on Wednesday.
“It has been the honour and privilege of my life,” he said.
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“Victorians have endorsed me and my team in record terms. I am very proud of that and I am very grateful for that. I am also proud to think of all that we have achieved over these nine years.
“In good times, and bad, always working hard to do what’s right, not simply what’s popular.”
Andrews said, speaking to his wife Catherine and children, he knew it was time to pass the “amazing responsibility” to someone else.
“The only way that I know how to do this job is to have it consume me, to have it define me. To a certain extent, every waking moment is about the work and that takes a toll,” he said.
“To Cath, she’s my best friend and none of this was remotely possible without her support, her guidance and her love. To Noah, Grace and Joseph, they know only politics. Dad has always done this. For all that that has meant, thank you. You are everything to me.”
The next premier will be determined by a caucus meeting at midday on Wednesday.
On being asked how he will start life after his resignation, Andrews admitted it would be a tough adjustment, but he will take some time off to spend with his family, play golf and read books that he hasn’t had time to start.
He said he came to the decision “fairly recently” when he was in the final stages of Victoria’s housing statement and realised it might be the last big reform he did.
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“Ultimately, once those thoughts of what … life will be like after this roll start to creep in, you have got an important choice to make,” he said.
Andrews adamantly denied his back injury played a part in bringing the decision to resign forward after he slipped on wet stairs in 2021 and fractured several ribs.
Andrews has been leader of the Victorian Labor Party since December 2010 and premier since December 2014.
He was minister for gaming and also for multicultural affairs in the Steve Bracks Labor government from 2002 to 2007.
The 50-year-old father-of-three then became health minister when John Brumby was victorious in 2007, and introduced a bill to state parliament to decriminalise abortion the following year.
In his time as premier Victoria became the first state in the country to introduce euthanasia laws and other progressive legislation, including abortion clinic safe zones, decriminalising sex work and banning gay conversion practices.
Andrews was widely praised for his handling of the devastating Black Summer bushfires in 2019 and 2020, but his leadership became divisive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Victoria spent 262 days in lockdown and lived with a curfew, as well as a “Ring of Steel” separating Melbourne from the regions, a 5km travel radius and strict mask rules.
Andews also had to sack former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek from the ministry twice, first for alleged bullying and then for branch-stacking in a scandal that claimed the scalps of three other ministers.
From the time Labor was elected, it came under scrutiny for the use of parliamentary allowances for its 2014 election campaign, MPs not living in their electorates and even chauffeuring pet dogs in ministerial cars.
– With AAP
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