Outraged Victorians have vowed to leave the state after Daniel Andrews was re-elected premier for a third term.
Residents have lashed out against the Labor leader after he was handed the election win against Opposition leader Matthew Guy on Saturday night.
Victorians have threatened to pack up their bags and move interstate rather than endure another four years under a Labor leadership.
Outraged Victorians have vowed to leave the state after Daniel Andrews was re-elected premier for a third term
Victorians have threatened to pack up their bags and move interstate rather than endure another four years under a Labor leadership
‘If Dan Andrews wins I won’t be leaving Victoria because I’ve already left. Enjoy Communism,’ one person posted on Twitter.
The post was accompanied by a photo of the skyline outside an airplane.
Another posted: ‘You make me sick!! So glad I’m leaving Victoria now!!’
‘Who else is seriously considering leaving Victoria if Daniel Andrews remains Premier of Victoria ???’ a third wrote.
Political commentator Sydney Watson slammed Victorians for re-electing the same premier who enforced the harshest restrictions in the country during Covid.
‘My home state in Aus, Victoria, just voted back in the man who had them under the most abusive lockdowns and restrictions for over 260 days,’ she posted.
‘They also increased the vote for 2 minor socialist parties. All I can say is you reap what you sow.’
Victorians have been forced to endure six lockdowns since the outbreak of the virus in Australia in 2020.
Political commentator Sydney Watson slammed Victorians for re-electing the same premier who enforced the harshest restrictions in the country during Covid
Dr Watson has been vocal on her opinion on the outcome of the state election in Victoria
Stay-at-home orders, curfews, playground closures and the dreaded ring-of-steel were some of the cruel restrictions brought in by Mr Andrews.
The severity earned the premier the nickname ‘Dictator Dan’ and prompted regular protests staged by fed-up residents.
Dr Watson added in another post: ‘Every time I post about how messed up Australia is, I see an influx of irrationally angry Australians claiming otherwise.
‘How can you fix the state of your country if you continue to deny its problems exist?’
Residents have swooped in to defend the premier challenging dissatisfied voters to deliver on their promise and leave the state.
‘For all those who promised to leave Victoria if Dan Andrews won … I have a free bus leaving Flinders St at midday tomorrow,’ one person wrote.
A second added: ‘Dan Andrews is back if you’re leaving Victoria please go directly to Qld do not pass through NSW.’
The re-election of Dan Andrews has divided residents with some defending him
Andrews has hailed Labor’s convincing Victorian election win a triumph of hope over hate as he eyes a place in the history books.
The Labor leader was greeted with hugs from his mother and sister – as well as chants of ‘four more years’ from the adoring party faithful – after securing a third successive election win on Saturday.
Mr Andrews took to the stage at the party’s election night party in his seat of Mulgrave and recalled some words of advice from former Labor prime minister Paul Keating.
‘Paul Keating once said to me: ‘son, leadership is not about doing what is popular, leadership is about doing what’s right’,’ he told the jubilant crowd while surrounded by his wife and three children.
‘Essentially, he was telling me leadership is about doing what matters. That’s exactly what the people of this great state have endorsed today in resoundingly re-electing our strong, stable majority Labor government.’
Mr Andrews reflected on an incredibly challenging few years for his state, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He commended Victorians for sticking together through the one-in-100-year event and getting vaccinated.
‘We were not as some would say divided, we were instead united in our faith in science and in our faith and care for and in each other,’ the premier said.
‘That sense of kindness, that sense of connection, that sense of that we are all in this together has been confirmed today as well. Friends, hope always defeats hate.’
After thanking his family, staff and volunteers, Mr Andrews vowed to govern for all Victorians, no matter their views or opinions.
‘That’s what our job is. We take our responsibility seriously because Labor does what matters,’ he concluded.
Labor was on track to claim at least 50 seats when counting was suspended for the night.
It is projected to claim the seat of Glen Waverley in Melbourne’s east, partially offsetting losses in Nepean to the Liberals and Richmond to the Greens.
Although trailing earlier in the night, Northcote’s Labor MP Kat Theophanous leads Greens candidate Campbell Gome by 865 votes with more than 70 per cent of the ballots counted.
Despite losing some skin to the Greens, Labor campaign chair and former deputy premier James Merlino said it was a magnificent victory.
‘There’s tight contests in those seats in Footscray and Albert Park and Pascoe Vale. I’m hopeful we’ll get over the line in those contests,’ he told reporters.
‘Overall this is quite an extraordinary victory for the Labor Party, for Dan as the premier of our state delivering a third term.’
Mr Merlino said it was a mistake for the Liberals to turn the election into a referendum on Mr Andrews, one of many across their campaign.
‘They made their bed and now the Liberal party have got to sleep in it,’ he said.
Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan echoed the sentiment, calling out the Liberals for misreading the room on the premier.
‘His preferred premier ratings have been particularly strong throughout this campaign,’ she said told ABC television.
‘Now, the Liberal Party chose to put him on their how-to-vote cards. That seems to have backfired.’
Mr Andrews is poised to become the state’s fifth leader in history to serve 3000 days in office, making him eligible to be immortalised in bronze outside 1 Treasury Place in Melbourne.
If he remains leader until Easter, he’ll become the longest-serving Labor premier in Victoria’s history, taking the mantle from John Cain Jr.
Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese has hailed Daniel Andrews’ crushing Victorian election win as extraordinary, lashing out at the scare campaign he says his state counterpart faced.
The prime minister also dismissed suggestions the state poll pointed to a further shift towards minor parties in a fiery rebuke of claims there had been a ‘Greenslide’.
‘I know that some will declare that the major party process is somehow not ever going to be successful again. Well, I lead a majority Labor government, Daniel Andrews has just been elected for a third term with a majority Labor government,’ he told reporters on Sunday.
