Getting into the warped mind of Daniel Andrews

Tony Abbott visited his friend Cardinal Pell who has been in solitary confinement for months on end for crimes many people here in Australia and around the world refuse, on the evidence, to believe he committed. Indeed, some of us think Australia has descended into a Alfred Dreyfus phase of justice – meaning no justice.

Leaving aside a probable case of a miscarriage justice, surely there is nothing wrong in Abbott’s visit, as there would not be for anyone visiting a prison inmate. No sane person, no person who governs himself according to the ordinary rules of reason, would find a problem here, neither in terms of logic or fairness. Not Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria. Reason does not come into it.

Andrews has treated the public to an unhinged rant, accusing Abbott’s visit of being ‘shameful, absolutely shameful.’ Abbott had to apoligise to ‘victims’. Indeed, Andrews volunteered to apologise to victims on his behalf.

Andrews’ disturbed rant has provoked much criticism, one of the best by Geraldine Massey on the Spectator website: ‘Why on earth shouldn’t Tony Abbott visit George Pell. Andrew Bolt says it all in the video below.

I want to emphasise what Andrews’s hysterical outburst says about his mind, what it says about his psychopathology, and how he is expected on that basis to deal with critical political issues.

Andrews has completely ignored the legal processes of the state he governs. He has completely ignored the analyses of the conviction and failed appeal by legal experts around the world. Cardinal Pell is not guilty in legal terms until he has exhausted the legal processes availed to him. He has rights from which Andrews implicitly disqualifies him.

No, it is clear that Andrews thinks Cardinal Pell is guilty because that’s the way he feels it should be – whatever the evidence and the legal circumstances. In Andrews’ world Cardinal Pell is guilty. He belongs in jail. No succour is to be given. That’s the way his constituency thinks. That’s the way spiteful, delusional Louise Milligan thinks – or rather feels. His ideological feelings – those of a fanatical Marxist – direct him. They direct him in all political issues. Those who have ideological differences with Andrews and his Labor government should know what they’re up against.