Former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews is “in a very bad way” a month after being hospitalised after a mystery illness just before Christmas, sources say.
Sources told The Herald Sun Mr Andrews suffered a neurological episode that has left him debilitated and with speech and movement issues, and that he is now undergoing an intensive rehabilitation program.
Others said he was making a steady recovery after being taken to Monash Hospital in mid-December, and one source said those close to the ex-premier had “locked down information like Michael Schumacher’s family”.
Senior political figures also said serious concerns had been raised about Mr Andrews’ welfare after he failed to make a statement about the death of former advisor Tim Picton, who died on January 19 after allegedly being punched outside a Perth nightclub in late December, or attend his funeral.
Mr Andrews was previously put in intensive care at the Alfred Hospital after fracturing his spine and breaking several ribs at a holiday rental at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula in 2021.
He said he slipped on two small wooden steps, but his office’s initial refusal to provide details about the accident or the location generated conspiracy theories, all of which he has since dismissed.
Mr Andrews resigned as premier in 2023 after overseeing Victoria’s human rights-violating response to Covid, including the world’s longest lockdowns, which he imposed on Melbourne along with vaccine and mask mandates.
He was nicknamed “Dumpling Dan” and “Dimsum Dan” for signing a secret Belt and Road Initiative agreement with China in 2018 that was later torn up by the federal government and making a shadowy $82,000 visit to Beijing in 2023. He was then a guest at military parade in the Chinese capital in September this year.
Mr Andrews and his wife Catherine are also being sued for defamation by then-teenage cyclist Ryan Meuleman, who they collided with in 2013, leaving him seriously injured.
The “bike boy” incident sparked allegations of a cover-up, but the Andrews have always denied wrongdoing.
Header image: Daniel Andrews recovers in hospital from a broken back in 2021 (X).
