‘It will be a public urinal’: Calls to scrap statue of Dan Andrews

A controversial statue planned to honour former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews could turn into a site of public mockery and desecration if it is built, the shadow treasurer has warned.

Andrews, who served as premier between 2014 and 2023, is set to have a statue built to honour the fact he served as premier for more than 3000 days.

However, with taxpayers set to foot the bill of more than $134,000 in a time when the state government, under new Premier Ben Carroll, have vowed to cut spending on large projects, the statue project is unpopular with Victorians.

According to a Freshwater Strategy poll, 74 per cent of Victorians are opposed to a statue of Andrews, and Tim Wilson, shadow treasurer and federal MP in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, claimed it would become an icon for the wrong reasons.

“I don’t think Dan Andrews should want this statue, frankly, because I think its at serious risk of becoming a public urinal,” he told Today.

“We have new Premier out there Ben Carroll saying that he is cutting back on major public projects because the state can’t afford it, the state’s first minor public project that should be cut should be Dan Andrews’ statue, because that does not sit on a hierarchy of a single Victorian and their priorities.”

When asked whether a statue of a former Labor premier may draw connections to similar statues of leaders in the former Soviet Union, Wilson joked: “I can assure you this is not a socialist state and this is not a socialist town.”

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Independent MP Dai Le, representing the federal electorate of Fowler in Sydney’s west, said no Australian politicians should have a statue of themselves, regardless of which side of politics they were on.

“[Dan Andrews] should say, ‘No, I was a public servant, I was there to serve the state, and that’s it, no need to idolise me in a statue,’” Le said.

“No politicians should have a statue to their name.”

Despite the controversy, Andrews is not the first Victorian premier to get a statue erected in his honour.

The policy was introduced by former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett in the 1990s to commemorate premiers who had served for more than 3000 days.

Four previous premiers receiving the same honour, though in an ironic twist of fate, Kennett did not reach the milestone, being upset in the 1999 election, which ended his tenure at 2263 days.

Kennett, when asked about Andrews’ statue earlier this year, called it a “waste of money”, and claimed building a statue to commemorate a premier reaching the milestone mark was not compulsory.