Backroom Baz: Senior Labor MPs mulling future ahead of state election

With polls showing Labor are in for a fight to win a fourth term, chatter has ramped up about who might be following Tim Pallas out the door.

Scuttlebutt has turned to who could be following Tim Pallas out the door ahead of the state election. Picture: Aaron Francis.

Former treasurer Tim Pallas was, for so long, the subject of persistent retirement rumours that many of his Labor colleagues flew conveniently under the radar.

But with Tim out the way, scuttlebutt has turned to who else might be considering calling time on their political careers.

With polls showing Labor are in for a fight to win a fourth term, chatter has ramped up about a number of senior MPs, and ministers, calling it quits and avoiding a term in opposition.

After 12 years in government, the prospect of losing all the trappings of power would be hugely unappealing for the likes of energy tzar Lily D’Ambrosio, for example.

Ros Spence and Gayle Tierney are also names that have been thrown about in Labor circles recently as potential retirements, as has Gossip Girl’s local fanboy, Danny Pearson’s.

There was a flurry of senior ministerial resignations leading into the 2022 election, with the likes of Martin Pakula, Richard Wynne, Jaala Pulford, Martin Foley and Lisa Neville all handing in their parliamentary passes.

Labor types are expecting a similar exodus ahead of next year’s poll. On the flip side, with the Opposition daring to dream of governing, sources say senior MPs who had been seriously mulling retirement, like Wendy Lovell, are now adamant that they will hang around. Watch this space.

Shrove Tuesday timing falls flat

It will be politics with a side of pancakes this Tuesday, with the Premier set to host a Shrove Tuesday reception for Christian faith leaders.

Traditionally, the day is one in which Christians celebrate before 40 days of fasting leading into Easter.

Not everyone is happy with the government’s Shrove Tuesday event.

But the Premier’s office has managed to get some noses out of joint with the event, which is not celebrated by many middle eastern Christian communities including the Maronites, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Orthodox.

Baz is told the Premier’s office was warned Tuesday would not work for these communities as they begin their fasting on Monday, but the warning fell on deaf ears.

Chalk this one up as a political own goal – when you try and embrace different communities in the spirit of inclusion, but end up alienating them instead. Oops.

No urgency from Yarra Council, despite looming doomsday

Is anybody home at Yarra Council? They might be busy rolling out bike lanes and putting up a new $18,000 doomsday clock to check, but it seems no one is checking the emails. New mayor Steven Jolly is doing his all to clean up the joint after years of Greens-made disasters, but it’s leaving little time for the team to respond to media inquiries.

Yandell Walton with her artwork – Zone Red – on a plinth in Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy. Picture: Instagram

“We’ll be in touch to acknowledge your email within 3 business days,” is the standard response journos, working to round the clock deadlines, are now being met with. And that’s the best case scenario. Baz is told at least one journo has been putting in the same query for more than six months now and has yet to receive a single response. Maybe the media office has taken a leaf out of Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri’s workload playbook. That is to say, Fridays are optional.

Yee’s not giving up on political dreams

Political ambition dies hard. Ask Stella Yee, who announced she’d run as an independent in the eastern suburbs electorate of Menzies at the upcoming federal election.

Yee last ran in the seat as a Labor candidate, where she failed to beat then long serving member Kevin Andrews. Before that she stood for the Koonung Ward at the council election in 2016, challenging her failed result on the grounds that some voters had not been properly informed of their eligibility to enrol.

Stella Yee is running as an independent candidate in the upcoming federal election. Picture: Penny Stephens

Now, in her bid to oust incumbent Keith Wolahan Yee is running as an independent. And she’s been quick to clarify that the suspiciously teal-like colour she is using on her promo material is in fact aqua, her favourite colour, and one she used in elections well predating the teal movement.

Yee has also been quick to distance herself from Climate 200, saying she has received no funding from the group.

Cancelled Comm Games a ‘key priority’ for City of Melbourne

Spin city or sleepy hollow? When it comes to the boffins at Town Hall perhaps its both.

Because among its key priorities for the financial year was, according to page 64 of the report, delivering “new tourism initiatives and a transformed visitor services model to grow visitation, facilitate visitor movements and increase spend in readiness for the 2026 Commonwealth Games”.

A cardboard cut-out of Dan Andrews in Glasgow. Picture: Supplied

The what now? Oh year, the Games that we are still paying for, that will be hosted in Scotland.

Leaves little for the City of Melbourne to concern themselves with, you’d think.

This was the event cancelled in July 2023, and yet for the rest of the year it remains a key priority of the council.

Most gallingly, there’s a nice big green tick next to the planned activity. Mission accomplished? Baz thinks not

Guess who

Which member of the press gallery got a shout out from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week for his efforts tackling the Kokoda Track?

Overheard

“Bendigo based Jacinta Allan has announced the longest political suicide note in Victoria’s history, confirming Labor will torch alight 60 suburbs across Melbourne, and rush in high-rise towers, trashing liveability and packing in population growth,” shadow treasurer James Newbury unloads on the government’s latest round of housing announcements.

Got any scuttlebutt for Baz? [e-mail]

Originally published as Backroom Baz: Senior Labor MPs mulling future ahead of state election