Jeff Kennett, Steve Bracks on how a footy club and a death changed the 1999 state election
Jeff Kennett and Steve Bracks have recalled the impact the Geelong Football Club and Billy Brownless had on the 1999 state election, as well as the “unprecedented” death of a candidate on election day. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
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Jeff Kennett and Steve Bracks say they both had turncoat MPs from each other’s backbench ready to cross the floor to put them into power if the parliament was tied after the 1999 election.
The former premiers have also joked that the outcome of the election — which ended Mr Kennett’s time as premier — might have turned on Geelong Football Club star Billy Brownless’s failure to turn up at a polling booth.
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The revelations have emerged as part of the Herald Sun’s podcast series Face Off, which reunited the two former premiers to talk about the election 20 years ago that changed Victoria
The pair admitted that the result in the seat of Geelong, which Labor ended up winning by 16 votes, might have been different if Billy Brownless had turned up to the polling booth.
The Cats legend, who had earlier flirted with standing for the Liberals and was meant to hand out how-to-vote cards but was a no-show on election day.
The pair claimed they each had MPs from the other side ready to serve as Speaker.
The 1999 election was decided by a special election for the seat of Frankston East held a month after month after polling day that was sparked by the death of its sitting MP on election day.
If the Liberals had won Frankston East, or triumphed in a knife-edge result in Geelong, it would have given the Coalition 44 seats in the 88-seat parliament.
Mr Kennett told Mr Bracks if the government had managed to get to 44, “we had one of your guys who was going to be Speaker”.
But Mr Bracks hit back saying he had also been dealing with one of his opponent’s MPs and even if the Liberal and National parties had managed to get to 44 seats he had a defector who was ready to give the Labor Party and the three independents elected in 1999 a majority in the Legislative Assembly.
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“Well we had a National Party person who was about to be Speaker,” Mr Bracks claimed.
The two former premiers described the death of candidate Peter McLellan on election day as “unprecedented”, changing the nature of the contest because it forced a re-run of the Frankston East poll.
Mr Bracks said his wife said to him at the time that it would be remarkable if the whole result came down to that seat — which he dismissed at the time but which turned out to be true.