John Brumby no longer needs to look envious at soon-to-be former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks because, unless he gets hit by a bus between now and tomorrow's Caucus meeting, he's about to become Victoria's 45th Premier.To borrow phrase from Bob Carr, this should be a diverting three-and-a-half years.
Brumby is a failed former Federal MP who was parachuted into a Victorian Upper House seat in the early 1990s and then into his safe seat of Broadmeadows when Labor stabbed honest toiler Jim Kennan in the back. Made opposition leader to replace Kennett five minutes after entering Parliament, Victorians rejected Brumby resoundingly at the '96 election to give Jeff Kennett a second term. Then, his own party dumped him six months from the 1999 election in favour of Bracks. Bracks went on to beat Kennett, forming a minority government, and cemented his hold on power with a huge victory in 2002. Since 2000, Brumby has toiled away as treasurer, doing well to maintain the king's ransom left when Kennett sold the farm and repaid the state's debts.
You could compare his path to John Howard's, I guess, but Brumby isn't so much Lazarus with a triple bypass as Lazarus without his meds, brought back to life, mad as hell and chained to the helm, determined to take himself and everyone else out before his second demise.
Friends who have worked with Brumby report he is a control freak who screams at his staff and keeps his office in a constant state of fear. This should appeal to the Lib sympathisers who long for the grand old days when Kennett was throwing kids out of schools and selling the land off to his developer mates, or putting hospitals under the wrecking ball.
Victorians might be stuck with Brumby the horse's arse for three long years but this is how I like to think he will end up when the electorate, rather than his party, gets a hold of him in 2010:
Thanks again for nothing, ALP.
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