page_title: Steve Bracks
section_title: First term as Premier
hierarchical_section_title: Steve Bracks / State politics / First term as Premier
caption_attribution_description: Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and Transport Minister Peter Batchelor at the launch ceremony for the Regional Fast Rail project (Geelong line) at Geelong Station, Victoria, Australia. February 3 2006.
context_page_description: Stephen Phillip Bracks AC is a former Australian politician and the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Labor Party and was party leader and premier from 1999 to 2007
  Bracks led Labor in Victoria to minority government at the 1999 election, defeating the incumbent Jeff Kennett Liberal and National coalition government. Labor was returned with a majority government after a landslide win at the 2002 election. Labor was elected for a third term at the 2006 election with a substantial but reduced majority. Bracks is the second-longest-serving Labor premier in Victorian history, only John Cain Jr. served for a longer period. The treasurer, John Brumby, became Labor leader and premier in 2007 when Bracks retired from politics.
  Bracks will serve as the 6th Chancellor of Victoria University from 2021.
context_section_description: Political observers were almost unanimous that Bracks had no chance of defeating Liberal premier Jeff Kennett at the September 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.  On election night, much to its own surprise, Labor increased its seat count from 29 to 41, with the Liberals and their National Party allies retaining 43, and three falling to rural independents. With the Coalition one seat short of government, the election was to be decided in Frankston East, when the death of incumbent Peter McLellan forced a supplementary election.  That supplementary election was won by Labor on a large swing, resulting in a hung parliament.  The independents then threw their support to Labor, allowing Bracks to form government by one seat.
  The Coalition briefly considered forcing Bracks to demonstrate that he had support on the floor of the Assembly. However, two of the independents, Russell Savage and Susan Davies, felt Kennett had given them short shrift in the previous legislature, and would not have even considered supporting him. In any event, this gambit was brought undone when Kennett announced his retirement from politics on 20 October. Bracks then advised the Governor, Sir James Gobbo, that he could form a government, which was duly sworn in later that day. Bracks became the first Catholic Labor Premier of Victoria since 1932.
  Former leader Brumby, appointed Treasurer, was regarded as a major part of the government's success. He and the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, John Thwaites, and the Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, were regarded as the key ministers in the Bracks government.
  Following a pre-1999 election commitment to consider the feasibility of introducing fast rail services to regional centres, in 2000 the government approved funding for the Regional Fast Rail project, upgrading rail lines between Melbourne and Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Traralgon. However, in 2006 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, and 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."
  On 14 December 2000, Steve Bracks released a document outlining his government's intent to introduce the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001.
  The major criticism of Bracks's first 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.
caption: Steve Bracks and Transport minister Peter Batchelor at the launch of the Regional Fast Rail project Geelong line upgrades in February 2006
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