Satisfaction With Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews Dropping: Newspoll

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews speaks to the media in Melbourne, Australia on June 30, 2020. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

A new poll released by News Corp’s The Australian shows that Victorians are less satisfied with their state leader and his performance in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overall satisfaction in Premier Daniel Andrews’ performance has dropped since April from 75 to 67 percent.

In this period, the Victorian government has come under heavy criticism for its ties to an ever hostile Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with the state’s involvement in the regime’s Belt and Road Initiative increasingly touted as a risk to Australia’s national interests.

The premier also recently defended a staffer after her links to the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) were revealed.

The Australian’s poll also showed that support for Andrews’ handling of the pandemic dropped from 85 to 72 percent. All other states show an increase in support for their premier’s handling of the CCP virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

A quarter of respondents answered that Andrews is handling the coronavirus “badly” compared with 11 percent two months ago.

Victoria was the last state to start lifting restrictions that were put in place to stem the spread of the CCP virus in March. However, in the last couple of weeks, Victoria has experienced a concerning surge in new cases and 10 hotspot postcodes have been identified.

The premier has rushed to prevent a second wave of the virus by implementing stage 3 stay-at-home orders from July 1 for these hotspots.

Residents in the hotspot suburbs are now only allowed to leave their homes for four reasons: shopping for food and essentials, to provide care or seek medical treatment, to exercise, and to attend work or study.

Additional restrictions have been put in place, including not being allowed to have visitors at your house, not being allowed to visit friends and family who live at another house, and not being allowed to travel except for one of the four essential reasons.

The majority of new virus cases in Australia are coming from Victoria despite the state previously having imposed the toughest restrictions.

Victoria recorded 73 new CCP virus cases in the 24 hours leading up to July 1, bringing the new total to 370 active cases.