Sunday 14 August 2022 06:13 AM How 'Dictator Dan' Andrews is trying to erase Covid lockdown tag trends now

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is working hard to bury his 'Dictator Dan' tag and reinvent himself in the lead-up to November's election. 

The tag had dogged Mr Andrews throughout Victoria's repeated Covid-19 lockdowns, which stretched on and off for almost two years. 

In November, Victorians will head to the polls to cast their vote in the first election since they spent a world record breaking period locked in their homes under order of the Premier. 

By then, the bleak misery of winter and the state's world record breaking lockdown tally will be a distant memory for most. 

This year Mr Andrews has attempted to portray a softer side to his personality, taking jibes at WAG Bec Judd when she expressed crime fears in her leafy suburb, and appearing almost human in a tweet celebrating his 50th birthday.

When he returned to work after a nasty fall he comically wore his The North Face jacket - a jacket Victorians had come to loathe during repeated lockdowns.  

In March, a smiling Mr Andrews appeared on the red carpet alongside his family at the premiere of Hamilton at Her Majesty’s Theatre. 

In April he announced the death of his beloved cat Felix.  

Melburnians were released from their sixth lockdown on October 21 last year. 

Since then, most of the familiar faces of their political lockdown captors have been forgotten - or repressed. 

Four of Victoria's most senior government ministers have since stepped down from their portfolios leading up to the next election on November 26. 

Those ministers are former Deputy Premier and Education Minister James Merlino, Health Minister Martin Foley, Police Minister Lisa Neville and Sports Minister Martin Pakula. 

Each of whom played important roles in enforcing the closure of Victoria for 262 long days. 

Their departure had nothing to do with erasing the stains of their memories on the Victorian public leading into the election, they all agreed. 

'I didn't get well to get out. I got well to get back to do the work, to finish what we started, not what I've started, but what we've started,' Mr Andrews said at the time. 

'There's change and refresh and renewal, and that's critically important to any team, particularly if it's going to be the best team it can be.'

Each had watched on and forgotten how Covid-19 leaked out of the state's quarantine hotels, dooming Victorians' to curfews, home schooling and bans on children attending playgrounds.  

While the Andrews Government's disastrous reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic will live on in history books forever, it has continued to come under scrutiny in the months since it forced the state into billions of dollars worth of debt. 

Not that the voters seem to have noticed.