Daniel Andrews likely looks to business career after quitting as Victorian Premier
While he is close to trade unions, Mr Andrews has also cultivated relationships with some of Victoria’s biggest business identities. They are likely to help him find his next role.
Daniel Andrews is likely to pursue executive roles in the corporate sector or run a government authority, according to corporate sources close to the outgoing Victorian Premier.
Mr Andrews, 51, has been approached in recent months to consider several corporate roles, sources told The Australian, but he has no firm employment plans in the near future.
After a break, when “he will disappear for a while”, according to one source, he will eschew the traditional Labor MP path towards a superannuation or government-appointed board role. Instead, he wants to become a chief executive or take on a corporate management role in Australia, or potentially a government-appointed role overseas, another source told The Australian.
While Mr Andrews has pursued progressive policies and paid tribute to the trade union movement when announcing his resignation on Tuesday, he has long had friendships with some of Victoria’s wealthiest and most successful and influential businessmen.
Among his confidants is billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox and his family, and property doyen Max Beck is also known to be close to the Premier, and an occasional golfing partner.
Mr Andrews has also been close to former PwC boss Luke Sayers, the Carlton chairman he was recently spotted having a beer with, despite Mr Sayers being linked to the scandal engulfing his former workplace, and company director James Mackenzie.
Media identity Eddie McGuire is another among his circle of friends, while AFL boss Gillon McLachlan – also stepping down this week – and Seek co-founder Andrew Bassat and Jayco caravans magnate Gerry Ryan are others known to be supportive of the Premier.
But it is unlikely, several sources said, that Mr Andrews would simply start working at Mr Fox’s Linfox or Mr Sayers’ eponymous corporate advisory business.
It is understood he will start the process of finding a new role after Christmas and the January summer holidays.
John Stensholt
Libs warn 10,000 firms at risk of bankruptcy
The Coalition has forecast an extra 10,000 businesses will go under by the time the next parliament sits as economists say neither Anthony Albanese nor Peter Dutton have credible plans to address the nation’s economic challenges.
‘Time for talk has passed’: Hindu leaders urge PM to act
A top Hindu leader has warned the nation is ‘incubating religious intolerance’ with its failure to clamp down on anti-Semitism, claiming those who hate Jewish Australians ‘hate people of all faiths except their own’.