Daniel Andrews says Ben Carroll ‘can win’ Victoria election in rare public statement | Victorian politics

Former premier Daniel Andrews has backed Victoria’s new Labor leader Ben Carroll, saying he has what it takes to win November’s state election.

In a rare public statement on Wednesday, Andrews also paid tribute to Jacinta Allan, whom he hand-picked to replace him as prime minister when he steps down in September 2023.

Allan left the top job on Tuesday morning, minutes before he faced Carroll’s planned leadership spill. According to Carroll, he agreed to run after a cross-sectional panel of MPs told him on Monday that the prime minister had lost the confidence of his caucus.

In his statement, Andrews said he first met Allan “when he was the most junior official at ALP Head Office and the youngest candidate in a seemingly unwinnable Liberal stronghold in Bendigo”.

“Together we worked to win that seat and to elect Labor governments for the next 25 years and deliver the Labor agenda for working people,” Andrews said.

“There is no greater compliment in politics than to say that one lives one’s values; that has always been true of JA. For almost three decades she has been an advocate for Bendigo, workers, women and the future of Victoria.”

Andrews congratulated Carroll on his rise, describing him as “a great campaigner who will lead the way for the Liberal Party and One Nation”.

“Elections like this are won by a handful of votes in a handful of seats. I believe Premier Carroll and his team can win in November,” he said. “As he rightly points out, the risks are high.”

He also expressed concern that Victoria could face service cuts if the Liberals form a government with the help of One Nation.

Another former Labor prime minister, Steve Bracks, said Allan had no choice but to resign on Tuesday and that Carroll would bring a “fresh approach”.

“He will market himself not as a fourth-term Labor leader, but as a new Labor leader in a new term with a new set of policies and programmes,” Bracks told ABC radio.

Before Tuesday, speculation about a leadership leak had been building for months, fueled by Allan’s unpopularity and growing support for One Nation, as well as polls suggesting Labor would lose the November election.

Allan’s leadership was also preoccupied with allegations of corruption by the construction union working on the government’s Major Infrastructure Construction, as he was the minister responsible at the time. While he apologized for the criminal behavior that emerged, he also rejected calls for a royal commission, despite the pleas of his colleagues.

Carroll’s first act as prime minister was to announce a royal commission into the entire construction department.

He told reporters on Wednesday that he had asked the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to start working on “comprehensive” terms of reference and confirmed the commission would examine the Labor government’s oversight of the Grand Building.

“There is no stone [will be left] “Whether it’s senior contractors, subcontractors, labor hiring, government, unions—those will be comprehensive job descriptions,” Carroll said.

Carroll also stated that the $34.5 billion Suburban Rail Loop, an important project of Allan and Andrews, will also be discussed in the cabinet.

It was not stated whether the project would be reviewed. However, in response to another question, he said he would “be a prime minister who does not break contracts.”

Carroll reiterated that he was “very focused” on the train line to Melbourne airport, which until recently had been stalled.

The new prime minister chose a Kmart store as the location for Wednesday’s news conference, a nod to the eight years he worked at the Airport West store during high school and college.