Backroom Baz: Jacinta Allan calls in Dan Andrews over housing crisis

With the government’s housing statement in tatters, Daniel Andrews was spotted smugly marching into his old office this week for a meeting with the Premier.

With the government’s housing statement in tatters, Jacinta Allan called in the big guns this week.

Who better to call than Daniel Andrews, who was spotted smugly marching into his old office this week for a meeting with the Premier.

Baz’s spies on the ground say the housing crisis was firmly on the agenda.

Now, government diehards might take exception with Baz’s description of the housing statement, but industry experts agree the government’s target of 80,000 new homes a year is not achievable, while polls show voters are hugely critical of perceived inaction on the housing crisis.

Premier Jacinta Allan has met with Daniel Andrews to discuss the housing crisis. Picture: David Geraghty

Baz wonders how helpful it might be for Allan to be getting advice from the architect of the housing statement, and further linking herself to the man pollsters say she needs to be extricating herself from. Still, desperate times, perhaps?

Also spotted in the Premier’s office this week was Steve Bracks.

It seems in times of trouble, Allan is calling on all the experience she can to try and steady the ship.

Jeff, next?

Case of what might have been for Bach

Plenty of rumblings out of Liberal HQ again this week.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto insists it’s business as usual (that’s probably not ideal) and that he’s safe until the 2026 election.

But his colleagues and party operatives have spent the week counting the numbers to see if they can blast him out of the top job if attempts to convince him to resign fail.

With the Deeming defamation case hanging over the party’s head Pesutto might have a job keeping the challengers at bay.

Former Liberal MP Matt Bach. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui.

One he doesn’t have to worry about is Matt Bach, who quit politics last year to move to the UK to teach politics instead.

Back in town to testify in the Deeming matter this week, some colleagues were reminded what great loss he was to the team.

Others wondered whether he’d have made a good leader. Bach briefly toyed with the idea of running for the leadership after the 2022 state election. Had he emerged triumphant, Baz wonders what the Liberal Party would look like now, and whether Deeming might still be on the team?

Rule confusion could skewer Reece’s campaign

A little over a year ago, a misunderstanding of the Victorian Labor rules within Daniel Andrews’ office prevented his favoured candidate, Treasurer Tim Pallas, becoming deputy premier.

Has another misunderstanding of those rules skewered Lord Mayor Nick Reece’s campaign for re-election?

Reece’s campaign is being run by a team including former Andrews staffers Lissie Ratcliff and Jessie McCrone, now of FMRS Advisory, as well as former Labor Assistant State Secretary Stephen Donnelly.

A misunderstanding may have skewered Lord Mayor Nick Reece’s campaign for re-election. Picture: Jason Edwards

Sources have suggested the trio might have wrongly assumed that Labor’s endorsed candidate, Phil Reed, would be required to preference fellow Labor member Reece.

That’s because party rules require party members to preference each other in local council elections.

There is, however, a carve out for the City of Melbourne, where no such requirement exists.

With the Australian Services Union running a campaign against Reece for his efforts to privatise council services, Reed chose instead to preference Arron Wood in a move that may decide who governs our fair city for the next four years.

Oops. It’s times like these Baz is reminded of that old Tennessee saying immortalised by former President George W Bush: “fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.“

What’s in a name? Plenty, when it comes to council elections

Speaking of the council elections, Baz wonders what’s in a name?

Apart from, of course, name recognition being among the most important factors to success at the ballot box.

In Casey, one of the most diverse regions of Melbourne, the how-to-vote cards of former Liberal Party MP and councillor Gary Rowe managed to misspell the names of three of the six candidates.

All three of them from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Baz wonders how Rowe expects to represent a large section of his multicultural community when he or his team get such details wrongs.

They’ve spelt Abdullah as Abdulla, Onkar as Oskar and Shegofa as Sheridan. Oh, dear.

Melbourne Press Club locks in Allan as keynote speaker

A coup for the Melbourne Press Club this week, with confirmation they managed to lock-in Premier Jacinta Allan to give a keynote address at a special event later this month.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan will address the Melbourne Press Club. Picture: Diego Fedele

It’s been almost a decade since a Victorian Premier has appeared at the club when in 2015, then new premier Daniel Andrews, opened up about the shake-up he believed Victoria needed, the government’s ‘China strategy’ and its tourism and major events focus.

The longer his reign lasted, the greater disdain Andrews appeared to have for the media, and with it a refusal to return to the press club.

Allan and her office have made significant attempts to repair relations with the press since taking over as leader in September last year.

She will speak at a Melbourne Press Club lunch on Thursday, October 24, at Crown’s River Room. And she’ll hang around for a Q&A after.

Guess who?

Which federal MP came under attack by rank and file members at a branch meeting recently?

Overheard

“The Labor Party has a far better media operation than we do.” Former Liberal MP Matt Bach gives his old team a free performance review.

Originally published as Backroom Baz: Jacinta Allan calls in Dan Andrews over housing crisis