Michael O’Brien says he’s the right man to replace Daniel Andrews as Premier

State Liberal leader Michael O’Brien has already fought off a leadership challenge, but insists he’s the right man to take on Premier Daniel Andrews at the next election.

State opposition leader Michael O'Brien. Picture: Mark Stewart

Michael O’Brien never dreamt of a life in politics.

Now he’s got his eye on Victoria’s top job.

Despite a reputation of being guarded and sometimes inaccessible, O’Brien seems anything but.

Sitting down with him inside the Opposition Party Room at Parliament House we sit overlooking Spring St, and the iconic Imperial Hotel.

You get the sense O’Brien would be more at ease at the bar, but it’s business first and nothing gets in the way of that.

He is keen to open up, and cops criticism of his leadership style on the chin, but makes no apology for it.

O’Brien knows there could be few tougher gigs than steering the state’s Covid recovery.

But he doesn’t flinch when asked why he’d volunteer for such a challenge.

“I’m not sure how I say this without sounding corny, but I love Victoria,” he says

“This is the best state in the best country in the world, you’ve won the lottery of life in my view if you’re a Victorian.

“But we haven’t reached our potential, we’ve had a huge setback, and the only way we’re going to get to where we need to be is by people willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work.

“That’s something I’ve never shied away from.”

Leader of Victorian Liberal Party Michael O'Brien at Parliament House. Picture: David Caird

Michael O'Brien with his dogs Bonny and Brandy. Picture: Mark Stewart

If anything taught O’Brien the meaning of hard work and sacrifice, it was growing up in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs in a single parent home.

Bulleen, in the 1970s and 80s, was far from the now densely populated suburban idyll it is today.

When O’Brien was attending the local Catholic primary school it was still a semirural outpost, albeit just 13km northeast of the city.

“We had horse agistments across the road, it was like a new housing estate,” he says.

“When I see Melbourne’s population growth and I see all these new housing estates, I think back to my childhood.

“It’s hard to think of Bulleen as being sort of almost the outer suburbs, but that’s what it was.”

If the emerging suburb was a world away from what it was to become, it was even further away for O’Brien’s Irish born mum, Toni.

She came to Australia as a teen, met O’Brien’s dad and the pair had travelled back to Ireland.

But after Michael was born in 1971 the decision was made to return to Melbourne.

“They made a decision that Australia had better opportunities for a young family,” he says.

O’Brien was still in primary school when his parents separated.

He doesn’t talk about his dad much, but the influence of his mother in shaping his political views is clear.

Politics was never discussed around the dinner table, and he still can only guess at how she votes. He suspects she was a swinging voter until he entered the fray.

But she impressed upon him the value of making his own way in the world.

He knows life was tough for her as a single mum, as she juggled jobs to make sure her boys didn’t go without.

Politics was never discussed at the dinner table when Michael was a boy. Picture: Supplied

Life was tough for Michael’s single mum, as she juggled jobs to make sure her boys didn’t go without. Picture: Supplied

“She did a whole lot of different things, admin jobs, payroll procedures, all sorts, like a lot of single parents she had to work really hard,” he says.

“But you know, there was always food on the table and I’m always grateful to her because I know she made sacrifices.

“It probably would have been easier for her to take the two boys back to Ireland where she had a lot of family and family support.

“But she made the sacrifice I think for us, because Australia had better opportunities.”

Politics may never have been discussed at dinner, but it was round the table the young Michael’s values were set in stone.

“I suppose the values we had around the kitchen table were more sort of Liberal values.

“You know, don’t wait for someone to hand you something, if you want something you’ve got to work for it, go out and earn it.

“There was always that encouragement to work hard and you should be rewarded for what you put in.

“Whether that was work hard in your schoolwork and you deserve good marks, or if you want to get a new cricket bat, you know, do some part time work and earn it.

“So values wise I was always probably attracted to the Liberal Party even though I didn’t come from a Liberal family.”

By his final year of high school at Marcellin College, O’Brien looked to explore an emerging political interest.

It was 1989, around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Closer to home Victoria was at the tail end of the Cain-Kirner government which was engulfed in political and financial controversy and Victoria was in the throes of a severe economic crisis.

“I’m not quite sure which one had more influence on me,” he says.

“You could look around and you could see the problems of Victoria.”

“I remember going for a job at a new restaurant that was opening up in Kew and there were literally like 300 kids my age in line just desperate to try and get a job.

“It sort of made you realise that a bad government can really stuff up your life.

“So that, and just being interested in the world around me and thinking that instead of complaining about things, I should do something about it.”

O’Brien knew no-one in politics, let alone in the Liberal Party.

But he reached for a phonebook, found the number for the Liberal Party, and asked them to send him a membership form.

It wasn’t with the aim of a becoming a career politician.

Instead O’Brien harboured ambitions of a job in the law.

And it was while studying politics at Melbourne University that his interest in politics intensified. Student politics has a way of doing that.

He pulled beers at pubs, worked at the Australian Open over summer and did data entry admin jobs to support himself through university.

And while politics was a background interest, the writing was always on the wall that a career would come calling.

Michael O'Brien is a Carlton supporter, loves watching his kids play sport and playing golf. Picture: David Caird

In the midst of a successful career in commercial law that took O’Brien to the bar, he received a call to work with then federal treasurer Peter Costello as an in-house lawyer.

O’Brien calls it his ‘sliding doors’ moment.

“I could have just stayed on that commercial law career path but I thought that this sounds interesting,” he says.

“It sounded like an opportunity to be part of a government that had a bold vision for where they wanted to take the country.”

He spent five years in Costello’s office and still considers him a friend and mentor.

Many close to Costello remain fiercely loyal of O’Brien, too.

“I love the law but what made me jump across into politics was that when you’re a lawyer you work for one client. When you work in politics you put your heart into it.

“Politics and parliament gives you opportunities to do things for the community, for people, to change their lives for the better that I couldn’t do in the law.”

In his 15 years in parliament - O’Brien was first elected as the member for Malvern in 2006 _- he has served in the shadow ministry and as Treasurer in the Baillieu government.

He’s also had stints as covering the Energy and Resources, Gaming and Consumer Affairs portfolios.

But it his stint as opposition leader since 2018 that has thrust in the public spotlight more than any other.

Which is a challenge for O’Brien.

Quite unusually for a politician, O’Brien refuses to drag his family into the spotlight.

He might spend his weekends on the sidelines watching either of his teenage children play school sport, but you won’t see any pictures uploaded to social media.

He makes only a fleeting reference to his wife: The story of meeting her as they both lined up to use the one computer that had the internet at the law firm they worked at is too good not to share.

His family aren’t rolled out during election campaigns and requests to have his wife, a lawyer, appear alongside in photos are met with a stern no.

It’s why the pictures that accompany this article show O’Brien on the beach with his two Shetland sheepdogs and not his family.

Party insiders have suggested he reconsider the principled stance in a bid to normalise him to the everyday Victorians, and capitalise on the very real everyman image.

Without it he’s just a bloke in a suit.

But O’Brien isn’t interested.

“I would never judge families making choices about what’s best for them, and I know there are lots of politicians who put their family front and centre,” he says.

“I’m very happy for Victorians to know that I love my family.

“And one of the ways I show that I love my family, is to try and protect them and give them a little bit of space.”

Protecting his children from bullying, and the perils of social media, are front and centre in O’Brien’s mind.

“I’m the mug who’s gone into public life. Social media is such a horrible place. I’m prepared to put up with all the mud that gets thrown.

“Because this is something that I’m committed to and I’m passionate about, for the good of the state.

“People know that I’m a pretty ordinary Victorian, dad”.

He’s a long-suffering Carlton supporter, loves walking his dogs, watching his kids play sport and playing golf when time allows.

Michael O'Brien says Victorians don’t want “political point scoring during a pandemic”. Picture: David Caird

O’Brien is the first to admit he tells bad dad jokes and that he cops a lot of stick for his music collection.

Aussie folk-rock band Weddings, Parties, Anything remain a firm favourite, but a scroll through O’Brien’s Spotify shows anything from rap, to grunge, and country and western.

He knows he can’t protect his family from everything, though.

“I’m the volunteer, the family are the conscripts. I’ll do what I can to try and make sure that they can live their lives without having to put up with all the rubbish that gets thrown at me.”

And in the less than three years he’s been opposition leader - elected unopposed after former leader Matthew Guy stood down following the Liberals’ 2018 election drubbing - there’s been lots of rubbish thrown.

While the public gaze is usually only ever fully focused on state politics in the immediate lead up to an election, the coronavirus pandemic has turned usual norms on their head.

The fact that despite his short stint in the role O’Brien is currently the second longest serving state opposition leader in Australia demonstrates the challenge of the job.

He has had to balance supporting what needs to be done to move through the pandemic, while holding the government to account over its decisions.

His way of doing just that hasn’t been without its critics. Many from within his own party.

But he makes no apologies, and says a failed leadership spill earlier this year puts to rest any notion of further unrest.

Still, there are again rumblings about the future leadership of the party, and while a challenge is not yet locked in, pressure is building.

“I don’t think Victorians are interested in political point scoring during a pandemic,” he says.

“I’ve got a job to do and that’s to point out where the government has got things wrong.

“I would love nothing more than to stand up and congratulate the government on a job well done.

“You look at the damage that’s been done in this state that hasn’t been done around the country, and I can’t honestly say the government’s done a good job, so I will point out where they get things wrong with the aim of getting them put right.”

Reflecting on the possibility of one day leading the state brings O’Brien back to his childhood Bulleen and the example of his mum.

“You know, nothing’s ever been handed to me. That’s the attitude that I want to bring to this state, in the opportunity to lead this state.

“To work hard every single day. Because that’s what it’s going to take.

“We need a plan to revive small business, revive jobs, fix the problems in mental health, fix problems in our hospitals, and we’ve got to get our confidence back.

“We’ve got to bring back that Victoria that we can be.

“I don’t want Victoria to be second to anyone.”