Carroll’s long run: Can the boy from Airport West outrun Andrews’ ghost?
Ben Carroll has been appointed as the new Premier of Victoria, Australia, replacing Jacinta Allan in a desperate move by the Labor Party to avoid a major electoral defeat. The party is struggling with low polling numbers and voter frustration following the tenure of former leader Daniel Andrews.
Why it matters
The leadership change highlights the internal instability of the Victorian Labor government as it faces a critical upcoming election against a backdrop of significant public dissatisfaction.
Labor has turned to a “studious, serious” child of the west to save itself from electoral oblivion. But Ben Carroll has only a brief chance to right a rocking ship.
In his first speech as premier, Ben Carroll said, “I am not Daniel Andrews. I am not Jacinta Allan.” Justin McManus Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.
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Share A A A Bill Shorten spent much of his political life doing numbers. And the polling numbers coming out of Victoria’s Trades Hall a fortnight ago were scary.
Translated to the looming November election, the result would be a ruin deeper than that inflicted on Joan Kirner’s Labor government in 1992.
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