Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/24998

Title

Steve Bracks: the quiet achiever

Author(s)

Hayward, David

Abstract

Assessments of premiers are easier with the passing of time, for their contribution to history is clearer not when it is in the making, but well after it has been made. Broader sets of reference points become available, the heat of contemporary political battle has gone so that calmer heads are able to make more reasoned judgments, and the stock of data on which evaluations are made possible has been fattened. Arguably, it becomes easier to separate the premiers from the government over which they preside. It is in this context that this assessment of Steve Bracks' premiership should be understood. At the time of writing he is Victoria's incumbent premier, and barring a remarkable and wholly unexpected set of developments is likely to enjoy at least one further electoral victory during this year of celebrations to mark the State's sesquicentenary of responsible government. Undoubtedly Bracks will be remembered as a Labor premier who has made an important mark. A third term is likely to see him become Victoria's longest-serving Labor premier, who in a second term landslide delivered to the ALP its first ever commanding majority in both houses of Parliament. He will also be remembered for using this opportunity to deliver to the Labor faithful a goal the party had harboured for most of its history: democratisation of the Legislative Council. But beyond this, what else can be said? An earlier assessment concluded that, while Bracks had been a successful premier, he had not necessarily presided over a government that had been recognisably Labor. By embracing conservative financial settings and in the process giving treasury great influence, Bracks simultaneously denied his government the opportunity to deliver the broader set of social reforms expected of a leader of a centre left political party, despite controlling both houses of Parliament. Using more recent information from Bracks' second term, this chapter reviews this assessment and explores whether he has presided over a government that has been much more reformist than is widely recognised. It argues that there is much that he has done that is quintessentially Labor.

Publication type

Book chapter

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Business and Enterprise

Source

The Victorian premiers: 1856-2006 / Paul Strangio and Brian Costar (eds.), Chapter 27, pp. 382-403

Publication year

2006

Keyword(s)

Australia;  Australian politics;  Biography;  Bracks, Steve (1954-);  Government;  History;  Premiers;  Victoria

Publisher

Federation Press

ISBN

9781862876019

Copyright

Copyright © 2006 The Federation Press and contributors.

Peer reviewed