Updated ,first published
Ben Carroll has borrowed from the playbook of former premier Daniel Andrews by putting the Victorian Public Service under new management within days of becoming premier.
Carroll on Friday appointed Treasury head Chris Barrett, an experienced public servant with strong connections across the labour movement, to lead the Department of Premier and Cabinet and serve as the state’s top bureaucrat.
Barrett replaces Jeremi Moule, an Andrews-era appointee who served for six years in the job, including under premier Jacinta Allan.
The elevation of Barrett, which follows the appointment of Bracks and Rudd/Gillard era political operative Julie Ligeti to serve as Carroll’s chief of staff, deepens the quality of policy advice the new premier has to call on as his government faces an exodus of MPs with extensive ministerial experience.
What was intended as a minor cabinet reshuffle is now shaping up as a wholesale reallocation of portfolios, with the crucial policy areas of health, education, energy and climate change all needing new ministers, and speculation that Carroll may appoint a replacement treasurer and finance minister.
Ingrid Still is a leading candidate for health, which would likely free up her current Special Minister for State portfolio likely to be responsible for the royal commission into the building industry. Colin Brooks is a potential replacement for Jaclyn Symes as treasurer, and Police Minster Anthony Carbines could add finance to his portfolios.
Symes, a former attorney-general, is also the Minister for Industrial Relations and government leader in the upper house. One of Allan’s chief supporters, she handed down two budgets, returned Victoria’s finances to an operating surplus and has expressed no intention to retire from politics.
The current minister for finance is Sonya Kilkenny, who also serves as attorney-general and planning minister.
Long-serving Climate Action Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and Health Minister Harriet Shing announced their intention to stand down from cabinet after Tuesday’s leadership change. Along with Allan, who next week is expected to confirm to her Bendigo East electors that she will not be recontest her seat, they will retire from parliament at the end of this term.
Former ministers Natalie Hutchins, Gayle Tierney, Mary-Anne Thomas and Danny Pearson have all announced they will not recontest their seats.
Carroll is expected to announce his frontbench line-up on Monday.
Barrett’s elevation to the top of the Victorian Public Service echoes the approach taken by Daniel Andrews after the 2014 election when, on his first day as premier, he terminated the contract of then Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Andrew Tongue and replaced him with Chris Eccles.
Moule was a protégé of Eccles and a surprise appointment when he took over as DPC secretary in November 2020, when Victoria was just emerging from its first of two COVID winters.
As a lockdown appointment, he split his working life between Spring Street and his home town of Bendigo.
“I loved my job so I am sad to be leaving, but I’m also unreservedly at peace with respecting any premier’s right to choose who leads their department,” he told The Age.
Carroll paid tribute to Moule’s dedication, professionalism and “significant contribution” to the VPS, including guiding the public sector through the pandemic. Veteran Liberal MP David Davis was less generous.
“He was never held to full account for the mistakes during COVID, and his failure to stand up to Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan went directly to weaknesses in the public sector,” Davis said.
Where Moule took over responsibility for the entire public service without having previously run a department, Barrett brings to the job extensive experience in the VPS, a stint as Australian ambassador to the OECD, time as adviser to former federal treasurer Wayne Swan and opposition leader Kim Beazley and, as a fluent German speaker, developing international climate policy at a Berlin-based think-tank.
Barrett is also a Keynesian economist who, as Swan’s chief of staff during the global financial crisis, helped design government stimulus response that kept Australia out of recession.
“He [Barrett] brings to the role deep experience leading a major Victorian department, many years of public service in Canberra and representing Australia overseas, and a strong understanding of the state’s priorities,” Carroll said in a statement.
Like Ligeti, Barrett’s connection to Victorian politics stretches back to the Bracks government, when he was recruited from the Boston Consultancy Group into the DPC by then public service chief Terry Moran.
“He has got a hugely strong understanding of how policy is made,” Moran said. “I think he has got an independent mind and he will do extraordinarily well in a way that the premier’s department hasn’t seen for a time.”
Read more about Ben Carroll’s rise to the top
Resignation: Reading between the lines of Jacinta Allan’s farewell speech
Inside story: After an icy meeting, she still had hope. Then came a second knock at the door
Who is Ben Carroll? New premier’s journey from Kmart to power
How it happened: Slow, then fast, the downfall of a premier under siege
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Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper’s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years’ experience.Connect via email.From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
