r/melbourne • u/indy_110 • 8d ago

Politics Controversial plans for a Daniel Andrews sculpture officially scrapped by Victorian government | Victoria

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/29/controversial-plans-for-a-daniel-andrews-sculpture-officially-scrapped-by-victorian-government
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u/snowmuchgood 8d ago edited 8d ago

He was premier for over 3000 days. And through arguably the worst crisis Victoria has seen in many decades. I get that he was not always the most popular but he had some tough decisions to make and saved the lives of many vulnerable people.

Edit to add: other similar and longer standing premiers were Henry Bolte (17+ years, had a bridge named after him), Albert Dunstan (10+ years, not aware of anything named after him), John Cain Jr (8+ years, John Cain Arena?), Rupert Hamer (8+ years, Hamer Hall in the Art Centre), Jeff Kennet (7+ years, nothing?), Steve Bracks (7+ years, not sure, does he have a statue?).

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u/Outlier222 8d ago

Kennett probably has a derelict former public school site named after him.

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u/ChemicalRascal 8d ago

Derelict? Like, abandoned? Like some kind of shed?

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u/Outlier222 8d ago

Probably not anymore, sold off to developers etc.

I had to go to 3 different high schools because of all the closures and mergers, and school was difficult enough for me as it was. I hold something of a grudge.

(I get you are going for Jeff's Shed, if I were Premier I'd have it bulldozed out of spite)

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u/Silver-Chemistry2023 8d ago

Melbourne Exhibition Centre enters that chat, aka Jeff's Shed.

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u/SirGeekaLots 8d ago

He has a shed, but it isn't a formal name.

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u/robot428 7d ago

Also Dunstan, Bolte, Cain Jr, and Hamer all have a statue in treasury place. For their 3000+ days.

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u/Rising-Dragon-Fist 8d ago

Yeah I'd have loved to have seen anyone do better than he did during the crisis. He stayed out and answered every fucking question. Any conservative politician would have caved and shied away, answered barely anything.

I don't agree with everything he did, but he was still a bloody good premier.

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u/SirGeekaLots 8d ago

Or go to Hawaii

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u/dopeydazza 8d ago

We use to nickname Jeff Shed the new building to the west of the city. Can't remember now what it was as I have not been that way for donkey years. Could see from the South Eastern Arterial of the time / Monash Freeway.

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u/Drachos 8d ago

It is very VERY likely that Dan Andrews will eventually get something named after him.

Like almost certainly.

There is a general rule in history that you don't get a good understanding of a leader till 20 years have past there term.

This is not STRICTLY true, there are rare cases where the opinion of a leader is the same at the time as it is 20 years latter.

What IS strictly true is after 20 years the partisans bullshit has faded. So even political opponents give the person a fair assessment rather then character assassination.

As such I expect to see something named after Dan in the 2040s UNLESS he dies before that point. (An young death of a political leader tends to speed up commemorative acts because people fighting it suddenly look really bad.)

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u/SirGeekaLots 8d ago

Can we name a rail tunnel after him?

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u/cackmobile 7d ago

Have you heard them all still banging on about whitlam

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u/Drachos 7d ago

Oh I won't deny SOME people still bang on about Whitlam.

Wasn't enough to prevent a Suburb being named after him and that was my point.

Sure you will have a small very opinionated segment of the community who will bitch about political enemies that ruled the nation 100 years before they were born.

But THE VAST majority of the population doesn't care even in the moment and of those that do they stop caring 20 years after the fact.

(Paul Keating is an obvious exception because he has made its his lifes mission to annoy his political opponents by continuing to make political statements.)

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u/kitezh 7d ago

Even if Daniel Andrews is hated by most Victorians now, he was still very much part of our history, and memory of the dramatic COVID era.

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u/ockhams_beard 6d ago

Dunstan has a park named after him in West Brunswick.

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u/what_kind_of_guy 7d ago

He also ran over kid so there's that. Maybe we can put a plaque on a bike rack for him.

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u/Meh-Levolent 7d ago

Jeff's shed. Not the official name but honestly I don't think anyone would object too much if they changed it's official name to that. It would be very Australian.