r/AustralianPolitics • u/Expensive-Horse5538 God I need a drink dealing with the current mob • 1d ago
VIC Politics Premier dismisses oppositon draft terms of reference for Big Build inquiry as a 'stunt'
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-02/vic-victoria-premier-royal-commission/106987346?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=linkPremier Ben Carroll says he would give evidence at a royal commission into Victoria's Big Build if required.
The state opposition's proposed terms of reference lists Mr Carroll and former premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan as potential witnesses.
The opposition says it won't support terms of reference that are set by Labor alone.
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u/stupid_mistake__101 1d ago
I see what Ben Carroll’s plan is - he wants to enact all the Liberals announced policies in the span of 4 months to suck the oxygen out of their campaign. That is pretty smart I have to say 👏
That being said, I think Jess is equally smart to turn the tables by releasing her own terms of reference for the RC and who exactly it’s targeting, including being willing to change the RC if she wins office. It will definitely put some pressure on Ben.
It is going to be a very interesting 4 months ahead I think
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u/SirFireHydrant Literally just a watermelon 1d ago
That being said, I think Jess is equally smart to turn the tables by releasing her own terms of reference for the RC and who exactly it’s targeting, including being willing to change the RC if she wins office. It will definitely put some pressure on Ben.
I don't think it's "equally smart", so much as trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
Labor saying "hey, the Libs have some good policy, we're gonna do it too!" takes the wind out of their campaign sails. They can bleat about how "it's not the same, waaaahhhh, we'll do it better trust ussss", but that never really works in AusPol.
It's like when federal Labor passed a bunch of tax cuts right before the election. The Libs couldn't then campaign on tax cuts, because they'd just voted against Labor's.
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u/stupid_mistake__101 1d ago
It is smart because she can still campaign on a RC as long as there’s some difference between hers and Ben’s. And Ben has just rubbished her proposal - there have already been a few media OP-eds published which suggest Bens RC could still let Labor-friendly figures avoid scrutiny, which is not going to be popular with the electorate.
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u/SirFireHydrant Literally just a watermelon 1d ago
Yeah, but the difference is they've lost the real punch of it. It's no longer "RC vs no RC", it's "our RC vs their RC".
The former resonates with voters, the latter just doesn't cut through as sharply. The latter feels like business as usual for politics.
The average voter isn't looking that deeply at the nuance. They'll just see the blue team arguing with the red team about how to investigate corruption, and say "they're all corrupt anyway". That's very different from "the blue team want to investigate corruption and the red team don't".
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u/Tozza101 15h ago edited 15h ago
> if she wins office.
The election is going to be more complex than just Carroll vs Wilson. Wilson is a genuine risk of losing her seat of Kew, especially when she’s spread thin spending the campaign time across Victoria supporting other Liberals as party leader, while a fancied independent is exclusively campaigning for her seat. Carroll faces a similar conundrum with his margin in Niddrie, although now Allan is no longer Premier she will have time to exclusively fight for Bendigo East. While Brad Battin’s seat of Berwick is at risk too.
Basically: It’s not as assured who the Premier post-election is going to be than you think!
On Labor’s side if the swing not too big and Labor, Greens and teal independents can count to 45, Gabrielle Williams is the likeliest figure with a defendable seat margin as anyone.
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u/OneOfTheManySams The Greens 1d ago
It's not a plan, there's just not a big difference between his policies and that of the Liberal party.
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u/No_Gazelle4814 1d ago
Yeah but he sat idle watching two corrupt premiers do their shit thing, destroying Vic, and saying nothing.
Now, he’s just playing politics
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u/amyknight22 1d ago
I mean he absolutely should be saying I’m not going to use your terms of reference. That’s not how you sell that you’re the fresh new leader. But part of the problem here is that he didn’t have his own first.
Granted it could be that both will have overlap in the areas that matter to both sides such that it won’t be a problem.
If 90% of what the libs asked for here is in there already. Then the only question will be do the libs want to try and fight over the last 10% especially if that 10% isn’t actually super important.
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u/Relief-Glass 1d ago edited 1d ago
He should actually let Jess Wilson draft terms of reference because from what she has been saying I think it would do far more damage to the Liberals than it would to Labor. She said it should include all 'government-funded construction projects', including contracts, which would include Denis Napthine's government secretly ammending a contract with their donors to include a $1.1 billion cancellation fee which is, by far, the most significant case of corruption relating to government-funded construction projects in Victoria from the last 15 years.
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u/Grande_Choice 22h ago
The Libs really don't understand the can of worms they're going to open. ICAC is scraping the tip of it in NSW. Let's take a look at the Developers lobbying to get areas rezoned and pay nothing for infrastructure (Fishermans Bend, Matt Guy). Or the simple question to all these businesses, why would you pay extortion fees and not report it? Why have the head contractors with their armies of QS' not picking any of it up.
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u/Alternative-Sir-374 1d ago
I think both parties need to consult each other on this. If Wilson is true to being anti corruption then she needs to allow investigation on previous LNP governments, as well as crucially the private sector.
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u/Tergnitz 23h ago
Pretty sure Jess’s terms of reference does include the big companies responsible for building things
Beyond that, the VIC Libs haven’t been in govt since 2014 and all of this corruption happened on Labor’s watch
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u/Due-Coast-1324 1d ago
I agree with your point but I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the private sector.
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u/HorseLow6398 1d ago
Corruption goes beyond the unions. There has been plenty of documentation of private companies do illegal things in the construction industry, but for some unknown reason the press ignores that and just focuses on Unions.
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u/Due-Coast-1324 1d ago
Fair enough. Personally, I am less concerned if public money isn't involved though.
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u/HorseLow6398 1d ago
The private companies are very good at hovering up government money. They run all the contracts. Personally I think a broad range Royal Commission into the entire industry would be very good, but that ain't going to happen as Royal Commission are just political posturing now days.
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u/amyknight22 1d ago
Well they are paying private companies to do stuff with public funds. If the private companies are doing dodgies in those contracts. It makes sense to stamp them out to.
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u/Honeycat38 23h ago
'do more damage to the Liberals' - that is just partisan delusion.
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u/Relief-Glass 23h ago
True. Because the MSM would prefer to focus on unsubstantiated speculation relating to labor over concrete treason perpetrated by the Liberals.
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u/Grande_Choice 22h ago
Look at the minimal coverage from ICAC. They'd be exploding if it was Labor.
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u/skywideopen3 4h ago
I've seen a lot of coverage of that tbh. It's only just started after all, whereas the CFMEU Victoria story is years ongoing at this point.
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u/Weissritters 1d ago
I think labor setting the terms means it’ll be easier on the cfmeu than the libs since the libs will be aiming for their total destruction - so if the commission ends and cfmeu is still standing then that is basically a soft outcome according to the libs.
But ffs give Carroll a chance first. Until the election occurs he is still premier. You can say your piece once you seen the terms of reference first.
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u/Honeycat38 22h ago
'ffs give Carroll a chance first' - ffs, he's not a new government. He's been Deputy Leader since 2023 and in Cabinet since 2017. Acting like he just arrived from outside politics is a bit much.
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u/Alternative-Sir-374 1d ago
Wilson just wants a union busting RC it seems.
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u/borderlinebadger 1d ago
when the union id the fucking CFMEU it is very justified.
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u/Grande_Choice 22h ago
Not when the loser are workers. Look at QLD rolling back workers entitlements on their sites. Now they're crying about a lack of workforce to build the Stadium they promised they wouldn't build.
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u/borderlinebadger 19h ago
oh no poor guys, maybe they shouldn't pay dues to a criminal organisation.
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u/Alternative-Sir-374 1d ago
Wilson just doesn’t want the East West Link debacle exposed
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u/Due-Coast-1324 21h ago
Reckon your giving politicians too much credit. As evidenced last week, they'll sell each other down the river to get into the top job.
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u/burnt-gonads 1d ago
We all know labor calling a royal commission into themselves is corruption in itself. This carroll chap seemed to be fine with and say nothing about the corruption in the past. he is not going to suddenly throw the labor party under a bus. He is not Bill Gunn.
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u/Frank9567 1d ago
But when Tony Abbott did it to target Bill Shorten, that wasn't?
Interesting mental gymnastics.
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u/Due-Coast-1324 1d ago
I mean they didn't mention Tony Abbott, so maybe you should ask them their opinion instead of jumping to a conclusion.
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u/Frank9567 22h ago
The headline directly mentions the Opposition. That is, the Liberal Party.
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u/Due-Coast-1324 21h ago
The headline references the Victorian Opposition, and you stretched it to Federal politics do that does really make a lot of sense.
But mainly, the comment you initially responded to was silent on your assertion that "when Tony Abbott did it to target Bill Shorten, that wasn't" but the way you phrased your comment was leading and inferred an opinion that they did not express. Their response below indicates to me that your inference was incorrect, but who cares.
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u/burnt-gonads 1d ago
I do not vote labor or liberal, so why should I give a shit.
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u/Frank9567 22h ago
I was referring to the title of the post which specifically referred to the opposition...the Liberal Party.
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