Victoria scraps $134k Daniel Andrews statue, ends 27-year commemoration policy

Victoria's government has pulled the plug on a $134,000 bronze statue of Daniel Andrews, the former Labor premier who served the state for more than 3,000 days before stepping down in September 2023. The decision, announced by Premier Ben Carroll on Saturday, marks an abrupt end to a 27-year-old automatic commemoration policy that had been quietly humming along since Jeff Kennett introduced it ahead of the 1999 state election.

Work on the Andrews statue had already begun in May, commissioned through Meridian Sculpture—the same firm that had cast bronze likenesses of four other long-serving Victorian premiers positioned at Treasury Gardens. The company had been selected through standard procurement. But Carroll, newly in office, decided the arrangement no longer made sense. "We are grateful to former premiers for their service," he said in his announcement. "But gratitude does not require a taxpayer-funded statue." He framed the reversal as a matter of fiscal discipline: respecting how government spends public money meant being deliberate about what it pays for.

The Kennett policy itself was straightforward—any Victorian premier who clocked 3,000 days in office automatically received a statue on Treasury Place, a bronze monument to longevity in the role. Andrews had crossed that threshold comfortably, having served from December 2014 until September 2023. Four predecessors had already been honored this way: Sir Albert Dunstan, Sir Henry Bolte, Sir Rupert Hamer, and John Cain junior. One earlier premier, Sir James McCulloch, had served more than 3,000 days across non-consecutive terms but was never commemorated.

The move had been brewing. The Liberal opposition, led by Jess Wilson, had seized on the $134,000 price tag as emblematic of Labor waste. "If we come to government we will not allow that statue to proceed," Wilson said in late July, framing the spending as symptomatic of a government that did not respect taxpayers. The criticism had traction—the cost became a focal point in the broader political argument about fiscal management.

Carroll's response was to kill the automatic system entirely. He appointed an independent, bipartisan panel to review how Victoria commemorates officials through statues and state services. The Andrews statue contract itself will not be cancelled outright; instead, the panel will decide on an alternative subject and location for the commissioned work. It is a neat administrative solution—the money already spent on the commission does not vanish, but the Andrews effigy will not take its place on Treasury Place.

Andrew's own response to the cancellation has not yet surfaced publicly. But in 2023, as he was leaving office, he had already signaled skepticism about the whole enterprise. When asked about the 3,000-day milestone, he dismissed it. "There is no magic to that number," he said at the time. He went further: "People who spend a lot of time talking about legacy usually spend not enough time actually building one." Whether he views the scrapped statue as vindication of that philosophy, or simply as a political casualty, remains to be seen. What is clear is that a quarter-century policy has been suspended, and the question of how—and whom—Victoria chooses to memorialize in bronze is now open for reconsideration.