The one figure that sums up Jacinta Allan's legacy | 3AW Melbourne

Neil Mitchell with his reality check where, and it would have been, I reckon, the better part of two months ago, he predicted that a challenge was coming and that a challenge would succeed against the incumbent Premier.Neil Mitchell, good afternoon.Or can I boast a bit more?

2023, when John Pursuedo was in trouble, I said on Jackie's program, neither John Pursuedo or Jacinta Ellum will be around by the election.

Whoa, okay.That's pretty lucky that one.Okay, Neil, all I know, all I need to know from you now is a series of numbers that I might be able to use in a lotto draw tonight.Anyway, Neil, what did you make of it?

Well, I've got two questions today, one to the audience.One is, would you trust Ben Carroll?Do you forgive Ben Carroll?He's been there coming up for 10 years in the cabinet, to me he's a bit like the bloke who helps light a fire and then drives the fire truck out to put it out.I mean, that doesn't mean it won't work.Do you forgive him?

Will you trust him?That's one of the questions.And the other question, what is Jacinda Allen's Legacy, and I'll give you one figure which sums it up.I've worked this out.I've taken the number of days she was Premier, which is just over a thousand.

She didn't waste any of those days, as she said in her exit speech.

I don't know why she's going, actually, that exit speech.She sounded like the best Premier in the world.Anyway, I took the number of days she was Premier, divided into an increase in debt.$30 million a day, the debt went up for every day she was Premier.$30 million.How many hospitals, how many beds, how many police, how many firefighters, how many new CFA trucks, how many potholes?

$30 million a day, every day she was Premier.There's a legacy for you.

Well, the very hard -headed people who run the ALP will tell you, Neil, that that's not a vote killer.People don't care about debt.It's just a number.Everybody's in debt.If you've got a mortgage,you're in debt.

What they care about is results and they would argue that the big build is proof that government committed itself to an agenda and built things that people wanted.

Yeah, and gave a lot of money to a lot of people along the way who didn't deserve the money probably.Look, there's a lot of truth to that.The public does not perhaps relate to debt, but they do relate to overcrowded hospitals.They do relate to schools where the toilets don't work.They do relate when the coppers can't turn up.They do relate when they bust a wheel on a pothole.

And all those are reasons for shortage of money.You've got a shortage of money because you're servicing this ridiculous debt.And you can't do all those things you should be doing.That's her legacy.$30 million a day, every day she's Premier.Crime was down, as she mentioned in her exit speech.

Well, there have been some improvements in crime.It's got a hell of a long way to go.Crime was down.She said, we're in surplus, and neglected to mention we're not far off $200 billion in debt.And she looked after women's health.Of course, she probably agrees with Julia Gillard.

She's a victim of sexism.Nothing to do with incompetence and political arrogance.She's a victim of sexism.

Well, you can't play that card.You just can't.And there's, I think, a majority of women who wouldn't let her play it because she's casting herself as the victim there.And as you're intimating with your question, Neil, or your statement, you live or die on results.And that, well, OK, the party room itself, I mean, I watched them file in.These were all people who had signed off on all of the things that eventually added up to the list of charges against Jacinta Allen, if you like.

And they are wanting to save their skins.So we had no hand in this decision.It was the caucus.Do you think they need to reflect at all?

Of course they do, but they don't do that.They just want to win.It's not about achievements, it's about victory for most of them.I hope Ben Carroll's a bit different.Look, it's not aboutnot a bad person.

I've known her a long time, just about since she got into politics.In fact, a former general manager of ours was one of her teachers when she was at school.She's not a bad person, but she's let the politics of it overwhelm her.She became Dan in a dress, and she didn't do that well.It wasn't her.If she'd been herself, she would have had a much better chance, rather than trying to spin and con and bully.

I mean, this is the person who said, no problem with a big bill.There's no problems with a big bill.Suddenly we've got a Royal Commission.Oh, there's no potholes.Don't ask, no potholes.We're doing everything we need to.

It was just, look, the Labour Party, you talk about a legacy, she'll turn into a hero within five or six years.She'll be a feminist icon.Well, look, I mean, the Labour Party turned Gough Whitlam into a hero.

He's one of the worst governments we ever had.Well, you mentioned Anne Andrews.She stood very much in his shadow, but he was certainly not happy to move out of the limelight.He's essentially gone to ground, but he was still mentoring her, wasn't he?He still had some kind of input into the decisions she was making.He certainly hand -picked her.

He did hand -pick her.

He got her up.as Premier, I read a suggestion the other day, he spoke to her several times a week, I don't know if that's true or not, I wouldn't know, but if she, look...People have turned on Dan Andrews since he left, which is a bit frustrating, because when I was fighting with him when he was there, they all told me I was the idiot.Anyway, now everybody's tweaked to it, and he's no longer popular.So if she took advice from him, it was not a very wise thing to do.But on the other side, taking advice, Ben Carroll is taking advice, I'm told, from Steve Brax, a former Labor Premier, who was a totally different sort of character.

I mean, Steve Brax is a decent man.So is Ben Carroll a decent man.Dan Andrews runs Polybrew.

in a different way to that.He runs them in a way that wouldn't be out of place in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, if you ask me.So does that mean we're going to see a less ideological government?I mean, she obviously went very hard or, you know, she embraced that kind of far left agenda about gender ideology.She wouldn't embrace the business community at all.And there was a story in The Australian, Neil, I don't know if you saw it, there was a big meeting with Business Council of Australia, I think, The South Australian Premier and one or two of his ministers was there, but nobody from the Allen government was there.

And they said, look, she just doesn't care about business.Is that maybe to do with maybe socialist prejudices that she held?

Yeah, maybe it is.Maybe it's a bit of a wheel run, this, thanks very much.I was talking, if I can mention my podcast, to Shane Elliott, former head of the ANZ, in this week's podcast, and he He wasn't talking specifically about Victoria, but he said sitting down with politicians, it's almost a waste of time because you talk a different language.They don't understand what business is talking about, particularly Labour politicians.Yeah, look, Ben Carroll will be more pragmatic.He has already put out Fearless to Business.

He's already meeting with the police.He's already called the Royal Commission.He's talking about the SRL and other things.Even working from home, he might you know, write a bit more wriggle room into the legislation.He will be more pragmatic.He comes from the right of the party.

But he's also a different style of politician.The question is whether he will be forgiven.I mean, he's been there 10 years.Only a week or two ago, he said, oh, we don't need a royal commission.And then within minutes of being premier, he called one.Now, that's that's dodgy politics.

And who would be surprised?But will people forgive that or will they go to the ballot box and say, nah, you were part of this disaster?Rodney, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Tony and Neil, how are you both?

Rodney, go ahead.

Well, you wouldn't take his, what was his message?Circumstances change.That's why I change.Circumstances change.You don't believe that?You don't accept that?

Nope.I think a lot of people are with you.I'm hearing that from a lot of people.I would have thought he'd ride that out.My advice to him, not that he'd want advice from me, is to be straight with people.Stop the spin.

Don't get up in front of the camera and with all those bozos nodding away behind you and say oh no there's no potholes or the big build is terrific or there's no CFMEU's just a union.Don't pretend.Get up there, speak directly to people and say, we've got a bit of trouble here.We're in trouble.It's going to hurt us.We've got a plan.

We'll get out of it.This is what we'll do.Just come with me. I don't know if he's up to that or not.It hasn't happened in politics for a long, long time.

No, they just seem to exist in a truth proof bubble with their protected entitlements and pay rises.And they just separate themselves more and more from the electorate who don't work in government.and don't enjoy the same, I don't know, benefits, if you like.I'll let you put the question to the callers, Neil, before we go to a break.

Well, I'd also say this is why One Nation is thriving, I think, even though, you know, they're almost more popular than either party, and they've got an empty chair, they haven't got a leader even, let alone candidates.I think One Nation's thriving because they stand up there and talk, and it's pointlessHanson does, and people mightn't agree with what she's saying, but they understand what she's saying, and they feel she's talking for them.Two questions.One, will you forgive Ben Carroll?Will you now get behind Ben Carroll, forgive him for having been there ten years?

Would you give him a chance?Most of these new leaders get a honeymoon.Will you give Ben Carroll a chance?Jacinta's legacy.What is Jacinta Allen's legacy?What will she be remembered for?

Yeah, just a quick point.If you want to judge Jacinda Allen's legacy, look at her farewell speech.Apart from boasting about things she shouldn't boast about, she broke the conventions.You're supposed to go with dignity, with class, with a bit of style, with a bit of humility.No politics.She made a self -congratulatory speech and weaved in kicks into the Liberal Party.

It was unedifying, and that's what she should be judged on.It was very, very disappointing.You think of the speeches over the years.Even Kevin Rudd stood there and he wept a bit, but even he did it with dignity.Pauline, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.I hated that Jacinta played the female card.I'm so sick of we want equality, but we only want equality when it suits us.And the minute we get a chance, we say, oh, I'm female.I'm being discriminated against.No, you're a politician.

You're a premier.You happen to be a female.But that doesn't mean that you should be classed as a female president, because that gives you something more than anyone else should get.

In fairness, Julia Gillard played it a bit more than Jacinta Allen, although she said we listened to women and we had health policies for women.That's maybe okay, but it was Julia Gillard who said she'd suffered from vile sexism.

As I was fond of saying at the time, she had the worst political judgment in Australian history, and that beats a Prime Minister who looked at the pounding surf of Cheviot Beach in1968 and said, I'm going for a swim.So Pauline, great point and well made.Although I've got, Neil, I have three women working on the program today.Do I agree with Pauline or not?I'm just looking through the glass.

Yes, I do agree with what Pauline said.Okay.Joe, good afternoon.

G'day Tony and Neil, g'day boys.Look, Ben Carroll can't be trusted, he was all part of it, and One Nation all the way from me, because she speaks our language, and Cynthia Allen was like a little kid that didn't get away with that speech.She was absolutely appalling, and she borders on evil, that lady.I tell ya, all that Labor Party, they see it for me as corruption and all that.

saying she would have won it would have blown up the party because they couldn't have operated for six weeks well actually not only that but she she had the chance of going but then did she goad or did she somehow get Sonia Kilpatrick to throw her hat in the ring sorry Kilkenny um you know further blowing up the whole process well that's right she was straight out there and said I would never do that because it would be destructive for the party then she nominated She signed the nomination for Sonia Kilkenny.

Now that was a bit of a factional trick, a bit of brinkmanship, a bit of gamesmanship.But she still did it and ran that risk, and you've had blood all over the floor of the caucus because of it.