Ten years ago today, the Victorian Electoral Commission ruled I was ineligible to run as an independent candidate in the 1999 Victorian election running against then Premier Jeff Kennett in his seat of Burwood. It was an event that gave birth to Crikey.
After quitting as the AFR’s Sydney-based Rear Window gossip columnist on August 31, the very short-lived campaign was unveiled on September 1, 1999. The Australian led its page five story the next day as follows:
A former senior Kennett Government adviser has thrown a hand grenade into the Victorian election campaign, announcing he will run as an Independent against the Premier and claiming he has damaging information about him.
There was a flurry of phone calls to Fairfax’s Sydney office 10 years ago this afternoon. Unfortunately, the AFR’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Michael Gill, was in no mood to take me back and a request to fill the vacant job editing the SMH’s business gossip column CBD was also rejected.
At 10.28am on the Sunday morning www.jeffed.com went live with what 774 ABC Melbourne morning presenter Jon Faine subsequently dubbed “the treatise”. The full 18,000-word version is worth a read, if only because so many of the names remain familiar to this day: people such as Neil Mitchell, Kerry Stokes, Eric Beecher, Alan Kohler, Terry McCrann, Michael Gill, Jon Faine, Col Allan, Ron Walker, Fred Hilmer, Lachlan Murdoch, Peter Blunden and Kerry Packer, to name just a few.
Faine on the Tuesday morning gave the site a huge run on his show.
jeffed.com ended up having 115,000 page views in 13 days from a standing start, making it more popular than the ALP’s site and a small contributor to what turned out to be the biggest electoral shock in recent Australian history.
Who else can claim to have closed 300 schools, sacked all 210 local councils and 12 judges, cut the public sector by almost 100,000 people, flogged off $30 billion worth of energy assets, hounded the DPP and Auditor General out of office, privatised the entire prison and public transport systems, delivered Melbourne the world’s second biggest tollroad and the world’s largest casino complex and pioneered case-mix funding in the health system.
And don’t forget that Crikey, which emerged as the re-branded Jeffed.com, will have its own 10th birthday to celebrate on February 14 next year.
Out on acres got a Beyond Blue envelope directed to every household in Australia. Jeff obviously knows alot about making people depressed.
there was nothing wrong with case-mix. It got medics working for their extremely generous pay and took control of the system out of their hands. It was one of the least aggressive breakings of the hold on a public service of unions which had for years used their power for their own ends, not those of the people their jobs were to serve.
John Cain said that his premiership was wrecked by the transport and, especially, teachers unions. He complained that the main driver of education budget considerations was wages and conditions, not what was best for students.
Kennett was too heavy handed. And he ignored rural Victoria. But every one of those union-busting interventions, and the actions to clean up local councils, were absolutely necessary and no-one, no-one, had or has had the guts to do the same.
” privatised the entire prison and public transport systems”
Stephen,
I don’t think so, certainly NOT the entire prison system, and just as bloody well too.
Peter Howard
Kennett was an arrogant homophobe who placed bigots Tehen and Wade in positions of power. Hope his back gives him hell and perhaps he may even drop dead in the not too distant future.
VICTORIA the place was in an awful mess truncated by mis management stupidity, failing institutions The Fantasy Chicken Farm odersey was a great epitath — then along came the rejuvination of lively activists in the Liberal Party with lots of time to be activists as their Jobs livelyhood wether as concretors, machine operators, contractors, or Medium Business operators JOBS were all but GONE! Thanks to Mr Cain, Mrs Kirner Mr Roper and their unruly group, Then the Result was Mr KENNETT and the newness of POWER and POWER mates, After the election of the Liberals the Activists were soon dismissed without ceromony and all things were rammed through, without a blink , think , or a thought, as same as MARK ANTHONY expressed to Octavious regarding Lepodius. But the extremes that went with KENNETTS WILL did stimulate( theres that word again) the ecomony of the State and we did come back from the brink Kennett was there doing what Kennett does best -Banging 6inch nails in with a 50lb Hammer. The trouble was he and his mates forgot to stop using a big nail and a blunt instrument, and boy did the Liberal Party suffer – The liberal Party is still suffering to this day as we Speak. We all Suffer. THE WORLDS GONE MAD
David Lloyd