Carroll scraps plan for statue of Daniel Andrews

A controversial $134,000 statue of former premier Daniel Andrews has been scrapped, with Victoria’s new leader Ben Carroll saying the statue policy did not meet taxpayer expectations.

Previously, any politician who served more than 3000 days as Victorian premier would be immortalised in bronze near Parliament House in Melbourne.

Carroll announced on Saturday that the statue policy would be repealed, and that work on the statue of Andrews, who was premier from 2014 to 2023, would stop.

But Carroll said the contract would not be cancelled, and that an independent panel would recommend an alternative subject for a statue, as part of a broader change which includes scaling back spending on state funerals.

The statue policy was introduced in 1999 by Jeff Kennett when he was premier.

Kennett told 3AW this month the statue policy “was not a rule, it was not legislation, it was a guideline”.

Four former premiers – Albert Dunstan, Henry Bolte, Rupert Hamer and John Cain Jr – each served 3000 days in a row in office and have been memorialised with a statue near 1 Treasury Place.

Carroll said taxpayers want public money to be used in a “careful and deliberate” manner, and that automatically granting long-serving premiers a statue did not meet that standard.

“We are grateful to former premiers for their service,” he said in a statement. “But gratitude does not require a taxpayer-funded statue.”

Carroll also said that the independent, bipartisan panel deciding on what statue should be built instead of the Andrews bronze would also make recommendations about the appropriate frequency, scale and costs of state funerals.

“State funerals are special and moving tributes. Part of what makes them special is their rarity,” said Carroll, who took over as premier last month.

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