Victorian Labor has installed Ben Carroll as Premier, replacing Jacinta Allan, in a bid to salvage the state election on 28 November.
Carroll is very much a man of the right—a member of the conservative SDA union and a protégé of Labor right figures like Stephen Conroy, Bill Shorten, Steve Bracks, John Brumby and Simon Crean.
He’s also a staunch supporter of Israel, although on that score he’s no different to his two nominally left predecessors, Dan Andrews and Allan.
In March 2023, as Minister for Industry and Innovation, Carroll led a delegation to Israel, which he described as “a key strategic partner for Victoria and my first choice of destination”.
Labor is on the nose, level with the Liberals and trailing One Nation in the latest Redbridge poll as the cost-of-living crisis fuels widespread anger.
But Carroll, previously Deputy Premier and Education Minister, has no solutions to offer—as the tens of thousands of public school teachers who are fighting his sub-standard EBA offer know only too well.
His first message to voters—delivered via a video in which he came across as more wooden than the office furniture—promised a “new direction” based on integrity, community safety and a focus on the economy.
Union-bashing
Integrity is code for calling a royal commission into corruption in the construction industry. That guarantees union-bashing, with further attacks on a CFMEU already badly weakened by federal Labor putting it into administration.
Community focus means being “tough on crime”. Allan introduced “adult time for violent crime” last year, boasting that it would mean more children going to jail and for longer.
Now Carroll may well try to placate conservative voters and Murdoch’s Herald Sun by extending the range of offences for which children can face adult sentences. He’s already promising to reopen police stations.
And when it comes to the economy, Crikey reported that Carroll will focus on tackling debt while offering business tax breaks. He’s also hinting that he’ll weaken new work from home legislation.
As The Australian’s Anthony Galloway argued, “Carroll effectively appropriated much of the Coalition’s agenda.”
That means less money for health, education and public transport and more frustration for workers considering voting One Nation.
Labor is facing defeat in November because it has nothing to offer workers in outer Melbourne suburbs who are hurting. Under Carroll, it will be more of the same—or worse.
It will be the struggles by teachers, council workers, public hospital doctors and Parks Victoria workers that will be the answer to a right wing Labor government and One Nation.
By David Glanz
