{"id":832732,"date":"2026-07-30T04:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832732\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T04:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:54:15","slug":"julie-ligeti-ben-carroll-to-appoint-labor-loyalist-as-chief-of-staff-for-victorian-government-ahead-of-election-and-cabinet-reshuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832732\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie Ligeti: Ben Carroll to appoint Labor loyalist as Chief of Staff for Victorian government ahead of election and cabinet reshuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chip<\/p>\n

Updated July 30, 2026 \u2014 12:23pm,first published 10:50am<\/p>\n

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Premier Ben Carroll<\/a> is seeking the help of one of Labor\u2019s most respected political operatives, Julie Ligeti, to run his government through to the November election.<\/p>\n

Ligeti, a former senior adviser in the Bracks government and chief of staff to former federal minister Brendan O\u2019Connor and current federal Housing Minister Clare O\u2019Neil who for a time was a housemate of Julia Gillard, has been approached to serve as the new Victorian leader\u2019s chief of staff.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Carroll with Labor candidate for Essendon Katerine Theodosis (left) and Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams,Justin McManus<\/p>\n

Her appointment is expected to be finalised in coming days.<\/p>\n

Carroll will also announce changes to his cabinet on Monday. Two sources familiar with the new premier\u2019s thinking said this would almost certainly involve appointing a new attorney-general to replace Sonya Kilkenny, the Jacinta Allan loyalist who unexpectedly challenged his elevation in a fractious caucus meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Premier<\/a><\/p>\n

The ministers who precipitated Tuesday\u2019s spill<\/a> by urging Allan to stand down \u2013 Colin Brooks, Ingrid Stitt, Anthony Carbines, Lizzie Blandthorn and Luba Grigorovitch \u2013 are first in line to benefit from the frontbench reshuffle.<\/p>\n

Gabrielle Williams, the senior Left faction figure who led the delegation into Allan\u2019s office on Monday, has already been sworn in as deputy premier<\/a> and by convention will have her pick of portfolios.<\/p>\n

Ligeti is well known to the two factional chiefs who helped orchestrate this week\u2019s coup to topple Allan \u2013 former federal MPs Alan Griffin and Stephen Conroy.<\/p>\n

As a veteran of one of Labor\u2019s most successful state governments and a survivor of the Rudd-Gillard wars in Canberra, she has deep connections across the party and the broader labour movement.<\/p>\n

She would join Carroll\u2019s deputy chief of staff Bassel Tallal, an emerging political operative with strong ties to the party\u2019s Right faction.<\/p>\n

The appointment would also put Ligeti in charge of the Premier\u2019s Private Office, with a staff of nearly 90 people, and make her responsible for administering the government\u2019s political agenda for the four months between now and the November 28 election.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Carroll at his first press conference as premier on Tuesday.Jason South<\/p>\n

A source close to Carroll, speaking confidentially to The Age to discuss internal party matters, said the new premier hoped to complete the transition to his administration and shift into full campaign mode within three weeks.<\/p>\n

Although Carroll has spent his first few days in power outlining the policy areas where his approach will differ from the Allan government\u2019s \u2013 the establishment of a royal commission<\/a> into the building industry, a more constructive relationship with business and tighter controls on the use of public money \u2013 his campaign focus will be on the same cost-of-living concerns Allan was seeking to address.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Maddi<\/a><\/p>\n

The government\u2019s legislation to protect working-from-home rights in anti-discrimination law will not be withdrawn from parliament, despite business calls for the policy to be abandoned.<\/p>\n

The fate of the Suburban Rail Loop<\/a> (SRL), a project Carroll does not support, will be decided once his new cabinet examines the contracts the government is already committed to.<\/p>\n

The abrupt change of Labor leaders, while angering and frustrating Allan\u2019s supporters, has significantly altered the political contest in Victoria.<\/p>\n

The Jess Wilson-led Coalition, which had promised to establish a royal commission into Big Build corruption and \u201cpause and review\u201d the SRL if elected, has been left momentarily discombobulated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen the Liberals this sad,\u201d one senior Labor figure said. \u201cOur best-case scenario before Monday was to save the furniture. Our best-case scenario now is to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Victorian Labor:<\/p>\n

Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts<\/a> on email or turn on notifications in the app.<\/p>\n

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\"ChipChip Le Grand<\/a> leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper\u2019s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years\u2019 experience.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated July 30, 2026 \u2014 12:23pm,first published 10:50am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-832732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832732","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=832732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}