The Source: Questions over whether Jaclyn Symes is actually eligible to be acting Premier, given she sits in the upper house

Victoria has a new leader in charge while Jacinta Allan and her deputy Ben Carroll are both on leave. The circumstances of the appointment haven’t been seen since 1868.

Treasurer Jaclyn Symes is acting Premier while Jacinta Allan and her deputy Ben Carroll are both on leave. Picture: Jason Edwards

Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers.

For just the second time in history, Victoria has an upper house premier.

With Jacinta Allan and her deputy Ben Carroll both on leave, Treasurer Jaclyn Symes has been given the top job.

But it’s prompted questions about whether she’s actually eligible for it, given she sits in the upper house.

Convention requires the premier sit in the lower house of parliament, the Legislative Assembly, where the government is formed.

But inquiries to the Premier’s office on Monday revealed that as long as parliament isn’t sitting, there is no bar to Symes carrying on the role.

Symes’ appointment has been given the thumbs up. Picture: Getty

Charles Sladen, in 1868, was the last and until now only premier to serve from the upper house.

As for Symes, you only have to go back four years to a time she was merely a humble minister for resources.

But a slew of high-profile resignations ahead of the 2022 election saw the beginning of a fast rise through the ranks.

First as Emergency Services Minister, then Attorney-General and now Treasurer.

It seems nothing can stop her, even an aversion to “economic terms”!

Traditional greeting blows top cop’s plain-clothes cover

Victoria’s top cop Mike Bush is making a habit of turning up incognito to look over what’s going on in his new home town.

The Source is reliably informed that the Chief Commissioner lobbed on Sunday at one of the regular pro-Palestine protests which have become such a contentious element of city life in the past two years.

But if the former New Zealander planned to quietly blend in and take a plain clothes look at what fuss was about, his cover was blown.

A Victoria Police sergeant who shares Bush’s Maori heritage was rostered on at the demonstration.

New Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush met with members at St Kilda police station in his first week on the job. Picture: Supplied

He recognised his new boss and the pair exchanged the traditional hongi greeting involving the rubbing of noses.

There was some momentary alarm from onlookers who thought they were about to witness a headbutt.

The anonymous approach appears to be something Bush favours.

When an East Melbourne synagogue was firebombed recently, he turned up in his casual clothes to inspect the damage. He went unrecognised by a media pack at the house of worship.

But Mr Bush cannot expect to escape the watchful eye of The Source. This column predicted he shaped as a contender for the top job weeks before he was selected in May.

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