Bracks Gone!

[Dogwatcher]

Apparently he's just about to announce his resignation.

Held a meeting with Cabinet this morning.

Interesting - coming on the back of his son's drinjk driving incident, as well as his decision not to join the national water plan, it's been a tough month.

Will be interesting to find out the reasons...

[RustyCage]

Its suprising that something as big as a Premier resigning could come out with no leak or anything at all.

[Leaping Lindner]

See ya Jeff...I mean Steve. I always make that mistake.

[Psyber]

Since then his deputy John Thwaites - he who was accepting the free trips to the snow from the board he appointed to manage the snowfields - has resigned as well. Local rumour is that he would have been dumped by Bracksy's likely successor John Brumby anyway. There are rumours of Bronwyn Pike, a former resident of Elizabeth [yes SA] being up for the deputy job.

That combination really makes me shudder - shades of Cain and Kirner [and Bannon] and traditional old-style Labor debt, as the old group resurface. Fortunately I expect to be leaving Victoria next year, before it sinks!

[Dogwatcher]

What's Bronwyn Pike done - for some reason I know that name from outside politics....

[Leaping Lindner]

Since then his deputy John Thwaites - he who was accepting the free trips to the snow from the board he appointed to manage the snowfields - has resigned as well. Local rumour is that he would have been dumped by Bracksy's likely successor John Brumby anyway. There are rumours of Bronwyn Pike, a former resident of Elizabeth [yes SA] being up for the deputy job.

That combination really makes me shudder - shades of Cain and Kirner [and Bannon] and traditional old-style Labor debt, as the old group resurface. Fortunately I expect to be leaving Victoria next year, before it sinks!

Maybe. But if Thwaites had stayed on he'd be premier rather than Brumby anyway so it wouldn't matter.
I wouldn't concern yourself about "old-style labor debt" as you put it. There is no longer a Labor party in Victoria.
Mind you if Balleau does manage to get in next election I hope he can find a few more schools to close, so that his real estate business can sell the property and he can add a few more zeros to his bank account.

[Psyber]

What's Bronwyn Pike done - for some reason I know that name from outside politics....

I'm not sure - I only know she was a Labor apparatchik in Elizabeth and got to be Minister for Health here in Victoria, and when I met her at a function a couple of years ago she told me she was from SA too, from Elizabeth, and looked a little stunned when I said, "Oh I've never been there."

[Which I haven't, although I did visit acquaintances at Brahma Lodge once, and there is a street named after me somewhere in Para Hills West where I have never been either.]

[Psyber]

Maybe. But if Thwaites had stayed on he'd be premier rather than Brumby anyway so it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't concern yourself about "old-style labor debt" as you put it. There is no longer a Labor party in Victoria.
Mind you if Balleau does manage to get in next election I hope he can find a few more schools to close, so that his real estate business can sell the property and he can add a few more zeros to his bank account.

LL, Brumby was the rump end of the push that created the state debt in Victoria, just as the Bannon government did in SA. That is why he was pushed aside for a new "clean-skin" leader by the Labor Party at the time. Presumably, it happened to some extent because both groups believed Paul Keating's going on about the "J-curve" and gambled on his predictions based on politically solidarity rather than common sense.

Both incoming Liberal governments inherited not only huge bank deficits caused by excessive state spending to keep things looking good, but huge unfunded superannuation liablilities, and the privatisation and cuts resulted because that was the only way of getting out from under the superannuation liability. The bank debt may have not been as big a problem without that.

I recall Don Dunstan admitting when he was Premiier of SA that his government was spending state super funds too, and he said, "It's OK, we are the government, we'll just replace it when necessary." Of course later it was proved states can't afford to do that when the crunch comes, and both states paid through loss of services for the mismanagement. Any private company that used its workers' super funds in this way would have found its directors going to gaol.

[McAlmanac]

Maybe. But if Thwaites had stayed on he'd be premier rather than Brumby anyway so it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't concern yourself about "old-style labor debt" as you put it. There is no longer a Labor party in Victoria.
Mind you if Balleau does manage to get in next election I hope he can find a few more schools to close, so that his real estate business can sell the property and he can add a few more zeros to his bank account.

LL, Brumby was the rump end of the push that created the state debt in Victoria, just as the Bannon government did in SA. That is why he was pushed aside for a new "clean-skin" leader by the Labor Party at the time. Presumably, it happened to some extent because both groups believed Paul Keating's going on about the "J-curve" and gambled on his predictions based on politically solidarity rather than common sense.

Brumby was only elected to the Victorian Parliament in 1993, in a by-election after Jeff Kennett came to power. In the 80's, he was the Federal member for Bendigo. Hardly responsible for state debt in Victoria.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

[Psyber]

Maybe. But if Thwaites had stayed on he'd be premier rather than Brumby anyway so it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't concern yourself about "old-style labor debt" as you put it. There is no longer a Labor party in Victoria.
Mind you if Balleau does manage to get in next election I hope he can find a few more schools to close, so that his real estate business can sell the property and he can add a few more zeros to his bank account.

LL, Brumby was the rump end of the push that created the state debt in Victoria, just as the Bannon government did in SA. That is why he was pushed aside for a new "clean-skin" leader by the Labor Party at the time. Presumably, it happened to some extent because both groups believed Paul Keating's going on about the "J-curve" and gambled on his predictions based on politically solidarity rather than common sense.

Brumby was only elected to the Victorian Parliament in 1993, in a by-election after Jeff Kennett came to power. In the 80's, he was the Federal member for Bendigo. Hardly responsible for state debt in Victoria.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

I was quoting from what was reported on ABC 774 in Melbourne on Thursday and Friday - the commentators there said he had been involved in the previous state Labor administration and its policies, as part of the same faction and orientation, and did not specify dates of his involvement or when he held office where [and neither did I for that matter]. It then said he was replaced as leader of the Victorian ALP by Bracks prior to the 1999 election, because the party wanted to separate itself from those connections and the previous policies of the faction. There was then some discussion, by commentators and talk back callers, about whether the state government would revert to more traditional policies without Bracks' modifying influence, as Gordon Brown appears to be doing in the UK now that Tony Blair is gone.

I didn't arrive in Victoria until January 1999 so I accepted the ABC had it right, as they are not known to be anti-Labor. Are you saying they misepresented the facts?

[Psyber]

oops - quoted to whole thing here - not sure if it was a site malfunction or a wrong mouse click by me.

[McAlmanac]

I stand by my original assertion - how can a Federal backbencher be responsible for state debt?

As a member of the Right faction, I don't think John Brumby will be lurching towards "old style Labor" policies.

[Psyber]

I stand by my original assertion - how can a Federal backbencher be responsible for state debt?

I don't know how the internal mechanisms work in the Labor Party. I remember a then Federal MP, Paul Keating, encouraging the Labor states to stick to policy because the J-curve would kick in and make it alright in the end during the 1980s, and being quoted by the state leaders!

As a member of the Right faction, I don't think John Brumby will be lurching towards "old style Labor" policies.

That's good news for Victoria then! You obviously know the party, so I'll accept the ABC report may have been inaccurate. The only Vic. Labor MP's I have met have been Bronwyn Pike and James Merlino, so my personal knowledge is limited. [The only Vic. Libs I've met have ben Robert Doyle and Helen Shardey.]

I tend to be of the "Don't vote, it only encourages them" faction philosophically.