Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks, the man who turned a protest vote against Jeff Kennett into victory in 1999’s “unlosable election”, is confident Daniel Andrews will join him to win a historic third term and cement himself as the “pre-eminent leader in Australian politics”.

The former premier – one of the few to win three election terms – also witnessed Labor’s shock state election loss in 2010 after he passed the baton to John Brumby. “The Liberals actually had a reasonably good slogan in 2010 which was ‘time’s up’,” he said.