Steve Bracks

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Steve Bracks

44th Premier of Victoria
Incumbent
Assumed office 1999
Deputy	John Thwaites
Preceded by	Jeff Kennett

Born	October 15, 1954 Ballarat, Victoria
Constituency	Williamstown
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse	Terry
Profession	School commerce teacher
Religion	Roman Catholic

Stephen Bracks (born October 15, 1954), Australian politician, has been Premier of Victoria since 1999. He was born in Ballarat, where his family owns a fashion business. He was educated at St Patrick's College and Ballarat College of Advanced Education (now the University of Ballarat), where he graduated in business studies and education.

Bracks, the first Catholic Labor Premier of Victoria since 1932, is of Lebanese descent. His paternal grandfather, whose family name was Brax, came to Australia as a child from Zahle in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon in the 1890s.^[1]

1 Early career
2 State politics
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Early career

From 1976 to 1981 Bracks was a school commerce teacher. During the 1980s he worked in local government in Ballarat and then as Executive Director of the Ballarat Education Centre. While in these positions he twice (1985 and 1988) contested the seat of Ballarat North in the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Australian Labor Party.

In 1989 Bracks was appointed statewide manager of Victorian state government employment programs, under the Labor government of John Cain. He then became an advisor to Cain, and to Cain's successor as Premier, Joan Kirner. Here he was able to witness from the inside the collapse of the Labor government following the economic and budgetary crisis which began in 1988. This experience gave Bracks a very conservative and cautious view of economic management in government.

Following the defeat of the Kirner government by the Liberal leader Jeff Kennett in late 1992, Bracks became Executive Director of the Victorian Printing Industry Training Board. He quit this post in 1994 when Kirner resigned from Parliament and Bracks was elected for Kirner's seat of Williamstown in the western suburbs of Melbourne, where he now lives with his wife Terry and their three children.

[edit] State politics

Early Days

Bracks was immediately elected to Labor front bench, as Shadow Minister for Employment, Industrial Relations and Tourism. In 1996, after Labor under John Brumby was again defeated, he became Shadow Treasurer. In March 1999, when it became apparent that Labor was headed for another defeat under Brumby's leadership, Brumby resigned and Bracks was elected Opposition Leader.

First term as Premier

Aside from Jeff Kennett himself political observers were almost unanimous that Bracks had no chance of defeating Kennett at the November 1999 election: polls gave Kennett a 60% popularity rating. Bracks and his senior colleagues (particularly Brumby, who comes from Bendigo) campaigned heavily in regional areas, accusing Kennett of ignoring regional communities. In response, voters in regional areas deserted the Kennett Government and Labor gained from 29 seats to 42, with the Liberals and their National Party allies retaining 43 and three falling to rural independents. With no party having a clear majority, the independents agreed to support a minority Labor government.

Former leader Brumby, appointed Treasurer, was regarded as a major part of the government's success. He and the Deputy Premier, John Thwaites, and the Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, were regarded as the reallicy in the Bracks government.

The major criticism of Bracks and his government was that their insistence on consultation stood in the way of effective, proactive government. Bracks, according to critics, achieved little, and lost the excitement of constant change that was characteristic of the Kennett years. The talents of some of the more junior ministers in the government were also questioned. Nevertheless Bracks got through his first term without major mishaps, and his popularity undiminished.

Second term as Premier

Labor won the 2002 election in a landslide, taking 62 seats out of 88 in the Legislative Assembly, and for the first time in Victorian history, a slim but clear majority in the Legislative Council as well. While this was the greatest victory Labor had ever had in a Victorian state election, it brought with it considerable risks. With majorities in both houses Bracks could no longer cite his weak parliamentary position as an excuse for inaction. The trade unions, who traditionally feel a strong sense of ownership of Labor state governments, began to be more assertive and inflexible during 2003 and 2004.

On August 28 2002, Bracks in conjuntion with then NSW counterpart Bob Carr, opened the Mowamba aqueduct between Jindabyne and Dalgety, to divert 38 gigalitres of water a year from Jindabyne dam to the Snowy and Murray rivers. The ten year plan cost $300millionAUD with Victoria and NSW splitting the costs. Melbourne Water has stated that within 50 years there will be 20 percent less water going into Victorian reservoirs. [1]

In May 2003 Bracks broke an election promise and announced that the proposed Scoresby Freeway in Melbourne's eastern suburbs would be a tollway rather than a freeway, as promised at the 2002 elections. As well as risking the a loss of support in marginal seats in eastern Melbourne, this decision brought about a furious response from the Howard Federal government, which cut off federal funding for the project on the grounds that the Bracks government had reneged on the terms of the federal-state funding agreement. The decision seems to have been on the recommendation of Brumby, who was concerned with the state's budgetary position.

Steve Bracks at a Vietnam Veterans Day ceremony, August 2006

This backflip, whilst seen by many as an opportunity for the Liberals to make ground, saw the then leader of the Liberals, Robert Doyle, adopt a much-criticised policy of half tolls, which was later overturned by his successor, Ted Baillieu.

On December 14 2000, Steve Bracks released a document outlining his government's intent to introduce the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001. Laws under which individuals could be jailed for six months and/or fined $6,000, and organisations fined $30,000 for "vilifying individuals on the basis of race or religion."

The extraordinarily broad law would allow for the prosecution of virtually anything including name-calling, verbal or written statements, gestures, the wearing of symbols or uniforms, or anything else which a "reasonable observer" could interpret as an offense to a "racial or religious group." It would cover statements or activities, even in private homes and the burden of proof would be on the accused to prove that he or she was innocent. And accusations could be made by a "third party, - not even the person who was offended."

In 2005 Bracks announced that Victorian cattlemen would be banned from using Victorias "High Plains" to graze cattle ending a 170 year tradition. Stockmen had been fearing this decision since 1984, when a labor government excised land to create the Alpine National Park. 300 cattlemen rode horses down Bourke street in protest. Victorian National Party leader Peter Ryan was quoted as saying that Bracks had "killed the man from Snowy river", a reference to the Banjo Paterson poem "The Man from Snowy River."

Bracks's government has achieved one of Victorian Labor's longest-held goals by a complete reform of the state's system for electing its upper house. The introduction of proportional representation, with eight five-member regions replacing the current single-member constituencies, will likely result in minor parties such as the Greens and DLP winning seats in this house, with a high chance they will hold the balance of power in anything other than a landslide to one party or other. Illustrating the historic importance Labor assigns to the changes, in a speech to a conference celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade "another victory for the aspirations of Eureka",^[2] and has described the changes as "his proudest achievement".^[3]

The staging of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, generally viewed as a success (albeit an expensive one) was viewed as a plus for Bracks and the government. In some respects, the state political situation reflects the federal one, though with the other major party in charge. With times reasonably good, a perception arguably reinforced by an extensive government advertising campaign selling the virtues of Victoria to Victorians,^[4] polls indicated little interest in change, although towards the end of the election campaign polling indicated that the Liberals under Baillieu were closing the gap.

Following a pre-1999 election commitment by the government to consider the feasibility of introducing fast rail services to regional centres, and the completion of related feasibility studies, in 2000 the government approved funding to upgrade rail lines to provide fast rail passenger services between Melbourne and Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Traralgon. The Victorian auditor general noted that in spite of $750 million spent, "We found that the delivery of more frequent fast rail services in the Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo corridors by the agreed dates was not achieved." "In total, the journey time outcomes will be more modest than we would have expected with only a minority of travellers likely to benefit from significant journey time improvements. These outcomes occur because giving some passengers full express services means bypassing often large numbers of passengers at intermediate stations along the corridors."

Bracks is a keen follower of Australian rules football, supporting the Geelong Football Club. His wife, Terry, is the number one female ticket holder for the Melbourne Football Club.

Third term as Premier

The election campaign was a relatively low-key affair, with the Government and Bracks largely running on their record as Premier, as well as their plans to tackle infrastructure issues in their third term. Bracks' image loomed large in Labor's election advertising. Liberal attacks concentrated on the slow process of infrastructure development under Bracks (notably on water supply issues relating to the severe drought affecting Victoria in the election leadup), and new Liberal leader Ted Baillieu promised to start construction on a range of new infrastructure initiatives, including a new dam on the Maribyrnong River and a desalination plant. Labor's broken election promise on Eastlink was also expected to be a factor in some seats in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

On 25 November 2006, Steve Bracks won his third election, comfortably defeating Baillieu to secure a third term, with a slightly reduced majority in the Lower House. This marks only the second time that the Victorian Labor Party has won a third term in office, and sets Steve Bracks well on the road to becoming Labor's longest-serving Premier. His third term Cabinet was sworn in on 1 December 2006 and he is also the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Multicultural Affairs.