{"id":834633,"date":"2026-07-31T01:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834633\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T01:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:30:13","slug":"the-labor-right-is-back-in-power-in-victoria-where-will-its-new-kmart-keating-premier-take-the-state-victorian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834633\/","title":{"rendered":"The Labor right is back in power in Victoria. Where will its new \u2018Kmart Keating\u2019 premier take the state? | Victorian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Ben Carroll delivered his first speech as Victoria\u2019s new premier, he said he wanted to make one thing clear: \u201cI am not Daniel Andrews, I am not Jacinta Allan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then went on to outline his priorities: restoring integrity via a royal commission into the construction sector<\/a>, eliminating wasteful spending of public money, rebuilding the relationship with the business community and making people feel safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounded like a return to the Bracks-Brumby era for Labor,\u201d says Stephen Donnelly, an electoral campaign consultant, podcast host and a member of Labor\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

The two premiers led Victoria<\/a> from 1999 to 2010 and were, like Carroll, members of Labor\u2019s right faction. His election marks the first time since that era that Victorian Labor is being led by a figure from the party\u2019s right, joining South Australia\u2019s Peter Malinauskas and Chris Minns in New South Wales.<\/p>\n

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While Allan was never a progressive firebrand, she, like Andrews, emerged from Labor\u2019s socialist left faction, which has traditionally placed greater emphasis on social issues and more interventionist role for government.<\/p>\n

The right, meanwhile, has generally been more economically focused and fiscally restrained, and within some sub-factions such as the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees\u2019 Association, known for being more socially conservative.<\/p>\n

So what does this mean for the state often considered Australia\u2019s most progressive?<\/p>\n

A \u2018Kmart Keating\u2019<\/p>\n

Carroll joined the powerful SDA while working at Kmart through high school and university. It was no coincidence that his press conference on his first full day as premier was inside a Melbourne CBD Kmart alongside the SDA state secretary Michael Donovan, announcing workplace protection orders aimed at tackling abuse and violence against retail and hospitality workers.<\/p>\n

The union had grown increasingly frustrated by Allan\u2019s slow progress on the reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have wanted it faster than this, but we\u2019re very pleased that the new premier is making it a priority matter in his first two days,\u201d Donovan told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Yet Carroll is not politically aligned with the SDA. He belongs to the dominant grouping within Labor\u2019s right aligned with the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, and federal minister Sam Rae, once known as the \u201cCons\u201d, after former Victorian senator Stephen Conroy.<\/p>\n

\"'Change‘Change starts today’: Ben Carroll delivers first speech as Victoria’s premier \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Carroll once worked for Conroy, whom he still regards as a mentor. But he\u2019s not the only influential figure in the party\u2019s right who\u2019s had a lasting impact on him.<\/p>\n

Simon Crean first introduced Carroll to politics, giving him a tour of Parliament House in 1996, the same year he joined his local Labor branch. After university, Carroll became a staffer to former premier Steve Bracks, who publicly backed his leadership this week. And for decades he has maintained a close relationship with Bill Shorten.<\/p>\n

Shorten is now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra and no longer plays an active role in the Labor party<\/a>. He says the pair spent years working closely because much of Carroll\u2019s seat of Niddrie overlapped with his former federal electorate of Maribyrnong.<\/p>\n

He describes Carroll as \u201ca Kmart Keating\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s someone who\u2019s very interested in the economy \u2013 not just spending money, but how it all fits together,\u201d Shorten says. \u201cHe\u2019s perfectly comfortable in boardrooms, but he also understands household budgets and the challenges facing small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shorten says Carroll\u2019s decision to centre his first speech on fiscal responsibility was telling.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets that you can\u2019t just spend money, things have to stack up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But, he says, that should not be mistaken for social conservatism.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s not a conservative. I think he\u2019s very grounded and in touch with people,\u201d Shorten says. \u201cAnd the Victorian people right now want a government that demonstrates restraint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outgoing Victorian premier Jacinta Allan departs after a final press conference at Parliament House in Melbourne. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n

Kos Samaras, a former Labor strategist turned pollster with Redbridge, agrees. Though he\u2019s aligned with the left of the party, he says he \u201cwouldn\u2019t describe Carroll as conservative\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s governed purely and principally by the community he grew up in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, these working-class communities are concerned about climate, but they\u2019re also concerned about being able to feed their kids. They\u2019ve probably got a view that some recreational drugs shouldn\u2019t be illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a binary thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Shorten and Samaras are encouraged by Carroll\u2019s plans to review the contentious Suburban Rail Loop<\/a> project.<\/p>\n

Samaras says it was telling that many of Allan\u2019s remaining supporters came from the areas set to benefit most from the first stage of the project \u2013 the $34.5bn SRL East \u2013 while MPs from Melbourne\u2019s outer suburbs shifted towards Carroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe right taking over isn\u2019t necessarily about conservative versus progressive,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a pivot back to Labor\u2019s base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donnelly also cautions against reading the leadership change as an ideological contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about what just happened in the Victorian Labor caucus room, it had nothing to do with ideology. The reason it happened was because MPs from the left split from their own faction \u2013 the right didn\u2019t have the numbers to elect Carroll on their own,\u201d Donnelly says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the number one reason MPs changed leaders was out of self-interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the left are also quick to dismiss suggestions that Carroll\u2019s victory marks their faction\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have the numbers on the conference floor, in caucus, in cabinet, on admin committee, on the public office selection committee,\u201d a senior Labor source aligned with the faction says.<\/p>\n

But with senior left figures Lily D\u2019Ambrosio and Harriet Shing quitting politics at the next election \u2013 and further resignations expected \u2013 there is no doubt the balance of power within the faction is shifting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Ben Carroll delivered his first speech as Victoria\u2019s new premier, he said he wanted to make one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-834633","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\/834633","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=834633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}