‘I’ve always been a team player’: Ben Carroll on the VCE exam crisis and what drives him

For a politician whose career has been remarkably scandal-free, Education Minister Ben Carroll faced unexpected pressure after this year’s VCE exams were marred by scandal, with questions released weeks before student sat their tests.

Carroll, who is also deputy premier, was forced to admit that 56 tests – nearly half of the 116 VCE exams – were hit by the breach, where questions were inadvertently published online.

Education Minister and Deputy Premier Ben Carroll.Credit: Eddie Jim

“It went from disappointment to anger, [just] the scale of it,” Carroll told The Age.

“You can’t upload cover sheets with embedded questions in them. It is simply unacceptable.”

In the fallout, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority chief executive resigned. Carroll has also ordered a full root-and-branch review, which he says will look at every part of the authority, including the culture, following other exam bungles across three separate years.

Unusually for a politician, he also took accountability for the blunder. As for whether he has confidence in the authority?

“It is a good question,” the state’s deputy premier told The Age in a wide-ranging interview at a cafe in Aberfeldie.

“You always lose a bit of confidence when something like this happens … this should not have occurred.”

Such candour from a minister is rare in a political crisis. But Carroll isn’t one to shy away from issues facing the state government.

A year after Daniel Andrews departed the top job, Labor’s primary vote has tumbled. That has coincided with a series of government U-turns, including a retreat from raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 and a promise to set up a second supervised drug injecting room.

Premier Jacinta Allan and her deputy, Education Minister Ben Carroll, visit a primary school.

Pill testing will be trialled this summer, in contrast to Andrews’ long-standing position, while forced health mergers – recommended by an expert panel – were abandoned.

“We’ve made some tough decisions over the past 12 months. Next year, you’ll see really important delivery,” Carroll said when asked about the government’s slide in support.

“I think you’ll see a turnaround, and that will require lots of hard work, and we are committed to doing that.”

In a political climate where the government – and premier – are on the nose, the role of deputy can be a tricky one. Media and MPs have been on high alert for any tensions between Jacinta Allan and her deputy, who are factional foes, particularly after Carroll’s bold and somewhat surprising push for the leadership job last year.

Ben Carroll surprised many in his party when he made a push for the leadership.Credit: Eddie Jim

Considered a political cleanskin, Carroll surprised colleagues when he marched into the Labor party room in September 2023 with MPs from the Right faction in tow, mounting a bid for the top job following Andrews’ departure.

He was incensed the Left was seeking to hold both positions, and his move is still described by colleagues as brave, treacherous – or both.

“This opportunity came up, I thought it was time to make a stand, and I made a stand on that day,” Carroll said.

“I would not change one minute at that meeting, or one minute of that day. I knew my true north, and I was committed to getting the right outcome.”

But Carroll’s move angered Andrews, who scolded his minister; Carroll eventually withdrew his candidacy and accepted the deputy premier position, avoiding a messy vote.

“I’d been thinking about it for a long time. I [had previously] supported Jacinta to be the deputy leader … I have always been a team player,” Carroll insisted.

While most of his colleagues have now agreed to let bygones be bygones, the move publicly signalled Carroll’s determination, displaying rare courage to stand up to Andrews.

Steve Bracks employed Carroll as a junior staffer, giving him one of his first jobs in politics. The former premier told The Age that Carroll’s leadership bid should not be interpreted as disloyal.

Ben Carroll with then-premier Daniel Andrews in 2022.Credit: Justin McManus

“He put his hand up in order to become deputy, and it was the mechanism to achieve the job he’s got,” Bracks said.

“From your deputy, you want loyalty, you want someone who will always back up the leader, and someone who can take the heavy lifting, that’s what Ben has done.”

Friend and former colleague Wade Noonan, who resigned from the ministry in 2017 for family reasons, believes Carroll learnt that “leadership is rarely gifted” and said his friend was not one to miss an opportunity.

“Politics is not a place for retreaters. Ben will stand up for the things that matter, in life, and in politics,” Noonan said.

Ben Carroll grew up with a love for football.

“There is courage in his approach. His ambition should not be confused – he is all about creating opportunity for Victorians, rather than seeking power for the sake of it.”

Carroll, 49, was born in Coburg in July 1975, the first of three children.

Borrowing a line from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has repeatedly said he was brought up with three great faiths – the Catholic Church, the Labor Party and South Sydney Football Club – Carroll says his parents raised him with three passions: the Catholic Church, the Labor Party and the North Melbourne Football Club.

That year, 1975, was a big one for North Melbourne, winning its first VFL/AFL premiership. It was also a defining year for the ALP with the dismissal of Gough Whitlam.

“Politics has always been in the house,” Carroll said. “Dad was always about the underdog.”

Carroll’s father, Greg, was an electrician and ran his own business, which went under during the 1990s recession.

“I learned a lot from Dad – despite losing his business in the Keating recession, he, to this day, says Paul Keating was our greatest prime minister,” he said.

“We saw the recession very closely in our family, but he was always thinking about those who were less fortunate.”

A young Ben Carroll with Simon Crean.

Carroll’s mum, Kay, was born in Fort Worth, Texas, before immigrating to Australia in her early teens. Carroll says his mother’s US links also spurred his love of politics, including an admiration for former president Bill Clinton.

After graduating with an arts degree, Carroll spent a few years working in insurance before Bracks’ unexpected victory in 1999 meant he took the first step in his political career.

By 2012, Carroll was working in Canberra for then-senator Stephen Conroy, when he was preselected to stand in Niddrie, edging out his current cabinet colleague, Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes.

“When a seat comes up … where you went to kinder, where you went to primary, where you went to secondary, where you got your first job, where your family have been part of the community … you have a crack.”

Deputy Premier Ben Carroll with wife Fiona and daughter Madeleine.

Carroll lives in his electorate with his wife Fiona, a lawyer, and their daughter Madeleine.

The deputy premier says he seeks political counsel from his wife, but parents at his daughter’s school gate were the ones who inspired him to make another bold call as education minister – mandating that public schools introduce structured phonics as part of an explicit teaching approach.

“I was on the WhatsApps with mothers and parents and fathers being stopped in the street ... [asking] are we teaching phonics?” he said.

The move was particularly controversial for a Labor MP; the Australian Education Union’s primary and secondary councils united to criticise the government’s decision to roll out a systematic synthetic phonics approach for all prep to grade 2 students.

“I went outside the department and did my own research. I think there’s no more fundamental reform than how we teach kids to read.

“I’m happy to make a stance,” he said. “That is what should drive me as minister.”

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