Work has already begun on a bronze statue of Daniel Andrews that will cost taxpayers $134,304 and be installed in the forecourt of 1 Treasury Place. Andrews will become the fourth state leader commemorated there.

The former premier, who led Victoria for more than 3,000 days, is set to join Albert Dunstan, Henry Bolte, Rupert Hamer and John Cain Jr in bronze at the government building site. The project is moving ahead while the politics around it are still raw.

The timing is what gives the story its bite. At the same moment the statue news emerged, Jacinta Allan was being grilled in parliament about Women in Construction, adding a fresh distraction for a government already taking fire over Big Build controversies. One of Allan's advisers texted through to say they had found a sculptor to make Andrews' statue, according to The Age, turning what might have been a ceremonial announcement into a live political problem.

Allan had previously been the minister responsible for major projects, transport infrastructure and the Suburban Rail Loop, so the statue announcement lands squarely in the orbit of the infrastructure agenda that has dominated the government for years. The forecourt at 1 Treasury Place is reserved for state leaders who have already been cast in bronze, and Andrews is now being added to that line of political history.

The question now is not whether the statue will happen — work has already started — but how much more political heat the government is willing to take as it presses ahead with a tribute that critics can easily frame as tone-deaf. For Andrews, the bronze will stand as a permanent marker of a premiership that ran for more than 3,000 days. For Allan, it arrives as another reminder that even a statue can become part of the fight over Victoria's Big Build.