In news that Ben Carroll won’t love hearing, his mentor, former Labor premier Steve Bracks, says there is mood for change in Victoria, with people wanting “someone else to have a go”.
But it is not just Labor Bracks has put the cooler on. He is not convinced One Nation will have the success the orange wave supporters are hoping for at November’s poll.
“Look, the conditions are not right for One Nation in Victoria. We are not a One Nation state,” Bracks told a Property Council lunch in Melbourne last week.
The former premier’s view on the mood for change was put down to the state Labor government having been around for 12 years – it was a pretty sombre take.
“You look at the cycles, you had (John) Cain and (Joan) Kirner from ’82 to ’92 for 10 years, you had Jeff Kennett for seven years … and myself and (John) Brumby, we had 11 years,” Bracks said.
“If you look at those cycles we have change in Victoria around about when you come into your third term, your fourth term. This government is pitching for a fourth term. That is heroic.
“I think the reality is that the big motivator for change is the fact that, ‘Look it is time to give somebody else a go, it has been 12 years,’ and I think that is what is running through the electorate currently.”
CBD would venture there are a few other factors contributing to the discourse around the upcoming election.
Bracks added Carroll would have had a better chance to resist the push for change if he had had more time in the top job. Carroll took the reins from Jacinta Allan in July.
“It would be great if Ben had more time, say a year,” Bracks told moderator Heidi Murphy.
“I think he is doing a good job, but in very, very difficult circumstances.”
Interestingly, both Bracks and former premier Ted Baillieu, who also spoke at the event, were coy when asked who would win the election. Both however agreed on one thing – they were each very happy not to be contesting November’s ballot-box battle.
‘Julia Gillard sends her regards’: Jacinda Ardern ribs Tony Abbott
It’s not often you hear former prime minister Tony Abbott admit to being to the left of anyone.
But, as CBD Sydney’s John Buckley reports, after a gentle push from our colleague Peter FitzSimons at his annual Cauliflower Club charity lunch in Sydney on Friday, Abbott quietly conceded he was to the left of his former Coalition colleague, Barnaby Joyce.
Former New Zealand prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern was asked whether she considered herself aligned with, to the left, or to the right of former prime minister Julia Gillard.
To the left, she said, sounding a little less squeamish than Abbott had just moments earlier.
Ardern and Abbott were the unlikely pairing at the annual rugby charity lunch. In their remarks, Ardern toasted the game’s forwards; Abbott, the backs. It was the former New Zealand prime minister, though, who won the room.
“Since resigning as New Zealand’s prime minister in 2023, I have done my best to stay out of the fray. And so, to be honest, at first I was unsure why you were asking me to speak today. But when you said, ‘I won’t let the club be lectured by that man’, it all became a little clearer,” Ardern told the room, to a roar of laughter.
“Kia ora, Tony, Julia Gillard sends her regards.”
She didn’t stop there. Ardern said that, before her address, she had thought about where her former profession might fit in on the rugby field. She joked about taking a straw poll before her appearance, which heard backs described as stars of the game, who seek the limelight and get all the glory for less of the work.
“The only thing I find personally relatable when it comes to backs is the pain one suffers from having to stand in front of a podium, especially when the knives come out. Oh, Tony, that reminds me, Malcolm [Turnbull] and Scott [Morrison] also send their regards,” she quipped – The Dame is pretty good with her zingers.
3AW radio king in winning form
The runs were coming the way of 3AW breakfast host Ross Stevenson in the racing game on Saturday. While Stevenson was at the Caulfield Cup in Melbourne, a horse he part owns, Captain Maverick, won at Doomben in Queensland and later in the day another horse he has a share of, Man of Worth, ran third in the last race on the card at Randwick in New South Wales.
We are sure, here at CBD, he had a sly wager on both. Also in the placings on Saturday was VRC chief executive Kylie Rogers. Rogers is a part-owner of Bella Blaze, a three-year-old filly trained by Michelle Payne, which finished second in a maiden at Bendigo at her third start.
Spotted
Ex-premier Jacinta Allan’s former chief media spinner Nathan Motton emerged at Caulfield on Cup Day.
Motton, who had been media director to Dan Andrews before joining Allan’s team, departed the premier’s office after Allan stepped down in July.
Motton was in the orbit of various Racing Victoria types when CBD spotted him in the invitation-only room.