Daniel Andrews has unleashed on one of the ABC’s biggest stars during a fiery interview.
On Friday, the Victorian Premier appeared on breakfast host Virginia Trioli’s ABC Radio Melbourne program for the first time in almost a year to update the listeners on the state’s evolving flood situation.
Mr Andrews only agreed to the live studio interview on the condition that the chat was solely focused on the floods.
But Trioli broke that promise towards the end of the interview, and caught Mr Andrews off guard.
ABC Radio Melbourne Virginia Trioli (pictured) sparked a war of words with the Victorian Premier during a live studio interview on Friday
After ten minutes of discussing the crisis, Trioli wanted assurance on-air Mr Andrews would be back for another interview before the November 26 election.
‘Now look, Premier, you’ve requested not to be asked about policy or politics today, you say, out of respect to those who are dealing with the floods,’ Trioli said.
‘But it has been, I just checked, almost a year to the day when you were last in this studio or on this show for an interview. Can you give an assurance to the listeners that you will be back here for a proper, in-depth interview within a couple of weeks?’
A visibly surprised Premier refused to give any guarantees.
‘Ah, well, I can’t give you a time, Virginia,’ he replied.
‘But I’m always happy to sit with you. I wish we were talking under much favourable circumstances.’
Trioli interrupted: ‘You could (give me a time) if you’d like to.’
Friday was the first time Daniel Andrews (pictured) had appeared on Trioli’s radio program in almost a year
The remark sparked a war of words.
‘Well, I could, but it might not mean much because I might have flood issues to deal with, or something else to deal with,’ Mr Andrews retorted.
‘But I’m always happy to speak to you, you know that.’
Trioli said they do keep requesting to speak to him, promoting Mr Andrews to try and shut down the questioning.
‘Today’s not a day for politics,’ he said.
But Trioli kept pressing: ‘But you’ll come back soon?’
‘Sure, I’m more than happy to,’ the Premier replied before quickly changing the subject back to floods.
Virginia Trioli’s request for a ‘proper, in depth’ interview with the Premier before the election didn’t go down well
Trioli was among the high profile names who slammed the Premier and his government after it was recently revealed ‘failings’ in the state’s triple-zero service led to the deaths of 33 people in the eight months up to May this year.
She started her radio show demanding why the government released the report two days earlier on a Saturday.
‘The government’s not available to talk to this damning report on the show today after releasing it to the public when very few people would have been paying attention,’ she said.
‘So where is scrutiny and accountability in the state of Victoria these days?’
Trioli isn’t the only broadcaster who has frosty relationship with the Victorian Premier.
Mr Andrews also has a long ongoing feud with rival Melbourne broadcaster Neil Mitchell and hasn’t appeared on his 3AW radio program in five years.
That feud won’t be ending anytime soon after Mitchell slammed the Premier in his latest piece in the Sunday Age on the weekend, describing Victoria’s pandemic response as the ‘elephant in the room’ this election.
The Premier only appeared on the ABC show to discuss the ongoing flood crisis in Victoria Pictured, children being evacuated from floodwaters in Shepparton on Sunday
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