Former Premier Jeff Kennett sees chink in Labor Party armour
Ex-premier Jeff Kennett has clashed with former political adversary Steve Bracks over mounting state debt in an interview for a new Herald Sun podcast series, Face Off, and says infrastructure project blowouts could offer “ingredients” for a 2022 state election.
National
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Former premier Jeff Kennett says mounting state debt and the potential for infrastructure project cost blowouts could provide “ingredients” for a boilover state election in 2022.
But the Liberal heavyweight says his party has to get its act together in opposition take full advantage of any government weaknesses that emerge and it is “not in that position yet”.
“If these infrastructure projects blow out as they’re doing and revenue shortfall continues to exist, there’s going to be a very rapid change and so therefore you might find yourself in the same sort of situation that we found ourselves — in reverse — in ’99,” he said.
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Mr Kennett clashed with his former political adversary Steve Bracks over debt during an interview for a new Herald Sun podcast series, Face Off.
Mr Bracks said debt as a proportion of gross state product was “very manageable”, despite being forecast to head past $50 billion within two years.
“The reality is that if it was a significant issue we would have seen a downgrading in the credit rating as we saw in Western Australia two or three times,” Mr Bracks said.
He also outlined the steps Labor took to maintain a responsible economic setting when confronting Mr Kennett in 1999, and which he maintained as premier.
This neutralised a party weakness and changed the way Labor state governments were perceived.
“We had a massive task. We were unrecognisable in 1999 compared to what we were when we lost in ’92,” Mr Bracks said.
“You look around at the people who were there (in 1999) who had nothing to do with the previous government.
“We had to reform and change and we had to reform and change the policy as well.”
Former ALP state secretary David Feeney said Mr Bracks saw it as “part of his task to make Labor the natural party of government in Victoria” and developed a “formula for doing that”.
But he said a changing economy, which now included large parts of the industrial working class who were self-employed, meant the Liberals should not be “underestimated in Victoria”.
Originally published as Former Premier Jeff Kennett sees chink in Labor Party armour