STATE POLITICS:

The Victorian state election due on 26 November has been cancelled after the two main sides of politics struck an historic deal last night.

The move, the first in Australian political history at local, state or federal level, is expected to save the state millions of dollars that can now be put towards helping fix problems, especially across the state’s health and transport sectors.

Under the deal, for the next four years, the 88-seat Legislative Assembly will comprise 65 Labor members, 12 Liberal and National Party members, with 11 Teal and other independent MPs on the crossbench.

Premier Daniel Andrews in an exclusive interview with The Bug early this morning explained what happened.

Andrews: I was thinking yesterday about how some sports have a mercy rule … you know, when one side is so far ahead and the outcome is in no doubt and The Herald Sun day by day is only making it worse – that the game can be called off to end one team’s humiliation and I thought: ‘Why can’t the same thing be applied to politics?’ So I rang Matthew ….

The Bug: Sorry, who?

Andrews: Sorry, right. Of course. So I rang Matt..

The Bug: Sorry, who?

Andrews: Sorry, right. Of course. So I rang MG…

The Bug: The Opposition Leader?

Andrews: Yes. And, sure, I’d already looked at the makeup of the current LA…

The Bug: The Legislative Assembly?

Andrews: That’s right. And I had already got to thinking how many seats could Matthew G…. sorry MG … expect to win in November. We’ve got 55 seats and the Opposition Liberals and Nationals have 27 with six on the crossbench. I also got to thinking about how expensive elections are to run and thought surely all that money could be put to better use and that’s when the idea of a mercy rule in politics really started to make sense. So when I rang Matthew … sorry MG … I asked him how many seats could he realistically expect to win? For example, would he be happy with four perhaps; double the number of Liberals in the Western Australian state lower house.

The Bug: A very good offer, one would have thought, given current polling? Certainly save a lot of political pain down the track?

Andrews: I thought so but Matth.. MG .. scoffed at the idea, saying the last WA state poll result was only because Scott Morrison was so despised after backing Clive Palmer and bagging the state all the way through the COVID pandemic. He said nothing from that election had any relevance to our own looming state poll because Scott Morrison was no longer the PM and was now well and truly out of voters’ minds. That’s when he paused for quite a while and said: ‘Can I get back to you in a sec?’. He rang back not long after and told me there was no way in the world the Opposition would lose its eight safest seats to Labor in November. I simply replied that even Labor wasn’t expected to take all of those. The Teals would take their fair share.

The Bug: Sounds like MG was quite the negotiator?

Andrews: He was. I said: ‘Let’s make it 10 then?’ When he said ‘No way’ I warned him he was really pushing it but in the interests of good governance and doing the right thing by all Victorians, I reluctantly said: ‘Okay, a dozen then?’ When Math…MG…. said: ‘A baker’s dozen?’ I got a bit narky, I must admit, and said he had to be realistic. There was another pause before he finally replied; ‘Okay, fair enough. Send over the paperwork’.