New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll distances himself from Daniel Andrews & Jacinta Allan, moves party to right

New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll effectively launched the Labor Party’s election campaign today by vowing to prevent a Liberal-One Nation government taking power in a State that has been a Labor stronghold for most of this century.

After narrowly avoiding an internal leadership ballot that could have left Victoria with an acting premier for six weeks or more, Mr Carroll’s first decision was to promise a special prosecutor and a royal commission to investigate allegations of corruption in State infrastructure projects that one independent expert has estimated may have cost more than $15 billion.

Mr Carroll said the 11-year-old Labor government is “going to go in new direction”, signalling a more traditionally right-wing Labor approach and a departure from predecessor Jacinta Allan’s emphasis on social justice.

“We’ll be focused on the basics: on education, on health and on community safety,” Mr Carroll told Parliament.

At a press conference he said: “Let me make one thing very clear: I am not Daniel Andrews. I am not Jacinta Allan.”

He said his first phone call after being sworn in as the State’s 50th premier by Lieutenant-Governor James Angus — Governor Margaret Gardner is on a state visit to North America — was to police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush “to tell him he will have every resource he needs to fight and combat crime”.

The early promise to the State’s top policeman suggests Mr Carroll sees fighting crime as crucial to winning an election scheduled for November 28.

‘A shemozzle’

Ms Allan’s refusal to call a judicial inquiry into the CFMEU in the face of intense media and political pressure may have contributed to her loss of support among Labor ministers and backbenchers, who sent a delegation to her on Monday seeking her resignation.

Ironically, her Government’s last major decision was to create a $170 million organised crime agency to fight many of the problems that have dominated headlines for years, including corruption linked to the CFMEU, street gangs and wars over illegal cigarettes.

After announcing her resignation at a morning press conference, Ms Allan’s final act as leader was to join 14 other left-wing MPs to nominate Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny for leader at a meeting of Labor MPs, according to media reports. Within a couple of hours Ms Kilkenny withdrew from the contest, avoiding a ballot that could have taken six to eight weeks to organise and carry out.

Under Labor rules, the party’s leadership switches to the deputy while a leadership ballot is conducted. That would have left Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams as acting leader, and presumably the interim premier, leaving the Government in limbo for up to two months before the election.

“It’s a shemozzle,” said Garth Head, a former chair of the party’s rules revision committee, before Ms Kilkenny pulled out. “It’s never happened like this before. And politically destructive for the Labor party.”

False-start tour

Facing his first question time as premier, Mr Carroll was confronted by Liberal leader Jess Wilson with his words of support for Ms Allan a month ago, when he spoke about being proud to tell his young daughter he backed a female leader. The Liberal Party has already turned the comments into an ad.

“When will the premier look Victorians in the eye and apologise for deceiving his daughter and demonstrating he lacks the necessary integrity to govern Victoria?” Ms Wilson asked Mr Carroll.

After explaining that he was approached by colleagues to stand and “circumstances had changed”, Mr Carroll alluded to the opposition’s new challenge of running against a Labor leader who has avoided the main political scandals over the past decade.

“I think someone has realised the Fresh Start Tour was the false-start tour,” he said, a reference to Ms Wilson’s recent five-week visit to all 88 Victorian electorates to promote the Coalition’s plans.

The tour was disrupted when Liberal backbencher Moira Deeming accused colleague Matthew Guy of assaulting her at a public event. The police cleared Mr Guy. On Tuesday Ms Deeming resigned from the Liberal Party, joining other independent MPs in the Upper House.

Mr Carroll, the son of an electrician who asserted he had been “unanimously” elected leader, said the Coalition and One Nation would cut health care, education and TAFE services.

“The stakes in this election are simply too high,” he said. “Victoria is on track for our first Liberal-One Nation government.”

Polls show the Labor Party, the Liberal-National Coalition and One Nation evenly split, suggesting a hung parliament is possible. But One Nation has not appointed a leader in Victoria or any candidates, raising questions about its election preparations, and the Coalition has issued an “Essential Services Guarantee” that promises to protect funding for the police, health system, schools and emergency services.

Ms Wilson has said “there’ll be no alliance” with One Nation. Having sought an inquiry into the CFMEU since last year, she accused the government of planning “a sham royal commission-lite designed to save Labor’s furniture”.

Asked if the $35 billion Suburban Rail Loop will go ahead — which some experts say the State can’t afford — Mr Carroll said he “will be addressing all these matters through a cabinet process”.

“Every dollar spent by our government is treated with the respect and the dignity it deserves,” he said.

Immediately after Mr Carroll’s victory the opposition moved a no-confidence motion in the Government that focused on the state’s high debt, weak economic performance and what it said were more than 70 new or raised taxes since Labor was elected in 2014.

“What we have seen is a Government that treats every questionable expense as too small to matter, eventually producing waste on a scale too large to comprehend,” Ms Wilson told Parliament.