The Queen Is Gone (No Surprises There)

In November 2021, then Labor leader and Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Michael Gunner blasted those who were against the mandates, even if they themselves had had the imposed medical treatment. “Stuff it, shove it!” Six months later in May 2022, he resigned as Chief Minister stating that his head and heart were no longer in the job.

In December 2021, then Western Australian Premier and Labor leader Mark McGowan was having fun closing borders and dictating what medical treatment his constituents must receive in order to maintain their livelihoods. In May 2023, he stood down as Premier and announced his retirement from politics citing “exhaustion”.

In mid-2021, then Victorian Premier and Labor leader Daniel Andrews was responsible for some of the harshest pandemic restrictions in the world, with his infamous Orwellian message, “Staying apart keeps us together”. Nighttime curfews, permits to work, yes, this was Dan Andrews dystopia. He also infamously banned golf. Three years on, karma has somewhat come back to bite him with many of Victoria’s elite golf clubs rejecting his membership. I suppose it comes as no surprise that in September this year, Daniel Andrews resigned as Premier, citing that he was “worse than a workaholic”, that “every waking moment was about work”, and that he didn’t “want to get to a place where he resented his job”.

And the last pandemic premier still standing in my home state of Queensland, Premier and Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, has announced her resignation as well just yesterday. Under her watch, Queensland notoriously had some of the strictest pandemic-related border restrictions in the country preventing desperate loved ones from reconnecting with dying family members and friends. She banned single-use plastic bags, brought in tougher land-clearing laws, and also legalised voluntary assisted dying. But now, the pressure has become a bit too much from within Labor’s ranks, and she has quit. Well, I’ve only got two words to say to the outgoing Premier… Good riddance!

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn