Andrews sinks plum post-politics postings to genocidal new depths

Supporting a genocide in public life comes with a unique set of considerations.

Daniel Andrews has been outspoken on behalf of Zionist interests and was recognised by the Zionist Federation of Australia with the awarding of the “Jerusalem Prize” at an event in Melbourne on Sunday (Source: YouTube)

Since retiring from politics, Former Victorian Premier turned recycled packaging consultant Daniel Andrews has been outspoken in his new role with the packaging giant Visy, and it isn’t about cardboard box innovations or new recycling technologies. Andrews has been quite outspoken on the geopolitics of Israel’s war in Gaza, and his latest remarks urging Jewish philanthropists to dump support for artists who may have been critical of Israel’s actions have bought into question his values and morals, stirred controversy, and have had very little to do with cardboard.

“If you want to support Hamas, then get them to pay your bills?” piped a man who was getting paid to speak in favour of supporting a genocide for the people that paid his bills. As the former Premier urges prominent Jewish Australians to “defund” those who refuse to call out antisemitism, it became clear that his role at a large packaging conglomerate owned by an influential Billionaire Andrew Pratt was about more than paper awareness.

Employed at the Pratt stable along with fellow Zionist and former PM Scott Morrison, Dan Andrews got to work pretty quick. In July, days after getting the role with Pratt, after ICJ rulings and UN resolutions condemning Israels genocide, and as the devastation in Gaza had become so apparent that it can’t be ignored by anyone objective and serious, Andrews addressed a synagogue in Melbourne, where he said the Palestinian state was “not a productive step”, and that "Israel not only has no partner for peace, but an actively hostile opponent."

Andrews wasn’t at the helm when October 7 occurred, but his successor Jacinta Allan lined the streets with Israeli flags a few weeks into the disproportionate response. And although he had never hid his pro-Israel stance, and reflected that stance in his government’s actions, his overt and vocal support for the Zionist movement on behalf of his employers looks disjointed in his life after politics, with many asking why a cardboard box merchant is spruiking so loudly for the political aims of those who support the heinous actions of Israel. 

Australians are no stranger to the modern cohort of politicians offering their influence to a corporate employer after their political careers. We have seen former Premiers like Berejiklian (Optus), McGowan (BHP), and now Andrews (Visy), along with politicians on State and Federal level throughout the country, pluck up plum jobs when they step away from public life, and taking up a position of some private interest. It’s bad enough trying to stomach the senior-politician-to-private-sector-goon pipeline populated by the political sharks who once thrashed around in the fish tank of government, but seeing them publicly advocate for the talking points of a genocidal regime is just a bit too much to choke down.

What motivates our modern major party politicians? Are they bound by a sense of civic duty instilled in values systems built over a lifetime spent in the service of others, or is it a certain Myers-Briggs personality type, once compartmentalised to the used car and property sales sector, that has proliferated and commandeered the finite postings that seem to act as career launchpads of the ethically unscrupulous? Andrews was met by Israel’s PM Bengamin Netanyahu in 2017 and briefed on the Iranian threat, and three years later, regaling another trip, he lamented “I have looked across the border, out to Beit Hanoun and the cities in Gaza beyond it and I have witnessed failure. It’s sad”. Maybe on these trips to Israel, or as the guest of honour at those private-dinner events, is where he thought of the “get them to pay your bills” line, where he developed such a disappointingly shallow understanding of the metrics of human suffering, espoused a lazy revisionist version of a colonial history, and offered a horrifyingly unnecessary allegiance to something so appalling and wrong due to a self-interested sense of career fulfilment, aspiration and obligation.

One thing that’s become apparent about this cohort of modern end-stage neoliberal mainstream politician types is how vapid they are in their value sets, and how unreasonably attracted they are to lots of money. People that make large six-figure salaries for decades on the public purse and still feel that their bags aren’t filled enough, boggle the average Australian, most of whom live week to week and paycheck to paycheck. We become so disheartened, seeing the politician to post-politician pipeline, and it has become emblematic of the rancour and rot in these people and the system they implement to board up our democracy. We are sick of seeing politicians sleeping with the enemy.

Andrews was valued as a political operator, and for a while a relatable public figure, because he was the first Victorian Premier in decades that had the ability to connect with the punter at the coalface, and he did so during the black swan event of a global pandemic. But Andrews, in his new iteration, is a great reminder that everyone in Victorian politics, no matter where they come from, no matter what they profess as their values, is still beholden to the casino, the racing commission, and Zionist lobby groups, like the ring was bound to Sauron. A version of this political binding is present at every level of government, with equal or greater combinations of corporate influence, and different formulas for gleaning political influence, but always a powerful lobby group nearby, ready and willing to wield their disproportionate power and influence for the small population they represent.

Meanwhile, pro-Israel “charities” are actively breaking their non-political remit by berating the Albanese government for their lack of support for a genocide, or praising the absolute support pledged by Peter Dutton. Former Israeli Government spokespeople are allowed open access to give talks that include subjects on Gaza including the “future of south Israel”, while speakers critical of Zionism are barred from speaking or entering the country. Newly minted “antisemitism envoys” get to arbitrate over what is socially acceptable, the press subjectively cheer on this current status quo, and with no islamophobia envoy in sight, or any major party politician that can speak out for Palestine without losing their job, the warnings of Dan Andrews appear callous, heavyhanded, and ignorant.

The legacy of Andrews, along with those of the major political class and the complicit media and all who choose to reinforce this genocidal narrative, are being crashed against the immovable rocks of the genocide itself. As they seek to expend the last of their finite power and influence to support a violent and desperate ideology that is committing unthinkable crimes under the bizarre delusion that it's a precondition of their continued existence, they do so while most secular Australians don’t support the continuous massacre of civilians and children, don’t have enough connection to the money, power and influence of billionaire genocide supporters to justify changing their minds, and stand aghast at the sight of a once respected Victorian Premier Premier leaning in for Israel at this harrowing stage of a genocide.

For his tireless service to Israel’s cause in political life, and for his role as a cardboard box/Middle East consultant, Daniel Andrews was recognised by the Zionist Federation of Australia, awarding him the “Jerusalem Prize” at an event in Melbourne on Sunday. In over a year of the worst human catastrophe in a generation, the Australian people have seen their democratically anointed leaders from both sides of the aisle take firm positions on Israel that do not reflect the public sentiment and ally themselves in no uncertain terms with the aggressors in this war on humanity. And even the legacy of former giants like Andrews shatters before us all, as he disingenuously calls for the cancellation of anti war-protestors under the false banner of pro-terrorism, damaging the social contract he once so eagerly claimed to protect, and shredding his legacy against the jagged rocks of the unconscionable.