Luba Grigorovitch, one of four Victorian Labor MPs promoted to cabinet, says she has \u201cno regrets\u201d about her past friendship with disgraced construction union leader John Setka, despite the opposition labelling her appointment \u201cappalling\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Victorian Labor caucus met on Tuesday and voted to elevate Grigorovitch, the member for Kororoit, along with Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke, Eureka MP Michaela Settle and Box Hill MP Paul Hamer, to cabinet.<\/p>\n
It followed the announcement on Monday by ministers Mary-Anne Thomas, Danny Pearson and Gayle Tierney that they would not recontest at the November election and would immediately step down from cabinet. They joined Natalie Hutchins, who moved to the backbench in December.<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n Before entering parliament at the 2022 election, Grigorovitch was the first woman and youngest-ever state secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU). During her time there, she worked closely with Setka, who led the Victorian branch of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) until his resignation amid scandal in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n She thanked Setka personally in her maiden speech in 2023 and he attended her wedding that same year.<\/p>\n The shadow attorney general, Liberal MP James Newbury, said Grigorovitch\u2019s ties to Setka meant she was \u201cnot fit to be a minister\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHow could the premier, Jacinta Allan<\/a>, possibly think that Luba Grigorovitch passes the character test of being a minister of this state?\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s appalling that she\u2019s chosen her for the cabinet. That\u2019s not to say that the other promotions were meritorious.\u201d<\/p>\n Grigorovitch said she had \u201cno regrets whatsoever\u201d when asked if she regretted her friendship with Setka after her promotion to cabinet on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a union secretary for close to 10 years, and it was a very proud time during my career. I very proudly stood up for workers\u2019 rights day in, day out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Asked if she still considered Setka a friend, Grigorovitch said: \u201cI\u2019m not walking away. I don\u2019t just ditch my mates when things get tough. But I have not spoken to John in a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n The premier defended her new ministers and said Newbury\u2019s comments were \u201cpetty\u201d and \u201cchildish\u201d.<\/p>\n Setka resigned from the CFMEU in mid-2024, prior to the release of an investigation by Nine newspapers which alleged bikies and underworld figures had infiltrated state government projects.<\/p>\n A report commissioned by an administrator \u2013 appointed by the federal government following the allegations \u2013 claimed the union morphed into a \u201ccrime syndicate\u201d under Setka\u2019s leadership<\/a>.<\/p>\n Setka has previously denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n From left to right: Paul Hamer, Luba Grigorovitch, Jacinta Allan, Ben Carroll, Michaela Settle and Paul Edbrooke. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n Edbrooke, meanwhile, has worked as a firefighter and teacher and made headlines in 2023 when he survived an emergency landing in a light plane<\/a> and then, weeks later, helped resuscitate a man<\/a>.<\/p>\n Settle owned and operated a family sheep farm in Ararat for a decade while Hamer was a civil engineer before winning what was once a safe Liberal seat in Melbourne\u2019s eastern suburbs.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you asked me 10 years ago, did I see myself being in this position? 10 years ago, I would have told you probably to stop smoking whatever you were smoking,\u201d Hamer told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I am very pleased to have been given the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Allan will on Wednesday announce the new ministers\u2019 portfolios as part of a broader reshuffle of cabinet positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luba Grigorovitch, one of four Victorian Labor MPs promoted to cabinet, says she has \u201cno regrets\u201d about her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-605917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}