Former Labor premier Steve Bracks says Jacinta Allan should have called a royal commission into the construction sector but praised new Premier Ben Carroll for quickly announcing one.
“I know that she [Allan] felt that a royal commission wouldn’t achieve the aims that people thought it would,” Bracks just told ABC Radio National, “but you know that’s water under the bridge now, and essentially, what has happened is that the new premier, Ben Carroll, has moved very quickly, very effectively.”
Asked whether the Labor government feared a royal commission, Bracks said he thought it was a “good thing” and that it would be “an effective mechanism of assuring that there is accountability in the building and construction sector in the future”.
Bracks said that Carroll would bring a “fresh approach to government” but warned the November state election would be “hand-to-hand combat” in all 88 seats as One Nation posed a threat alongside the Coalition.
He said Allan had “no option but to resign” but added that she “has been a great contributor in public life in Victoria over a long period of time”.
