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What next for Victoria?
There'll be plenty said and written in the coming weeks and months about the legacy of Daniel Andrews.
Plenty of debate (and division) about how he deserves to go down in this state's history. Whether he should be lauded or lampooned, celebrated or censured, for the hits and misses of the past nine years.
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But for those waiting in line to take over where the 48th premier is leaving off, there'll be no time available to ponder the past.
There are far more urgent matters for his immediate successor – and any revamped ministerial lineup – to have to deal with.
Including but not limited to:
– The state's mounting debt burden and ever-growing budget pressure
– Looming industrial action and threats of more, from train and firefighting unions
– A decision (finally!) on the site of a controversial second injecting room in Melbourne's CBD
– Handling growing police concerns with the public drunkenness law change on Melbourne Cup Day
– Major project cost blowouts and a shrinking federal pool of infrastructure funding
– Critical workforce shortages
– An opposition that believes it finally has something of a chance
– And an early test of electoral support for the new-look Labor team, when Mulgrave voters head to a by-election without the name Daniel Andrews on their ballots for the first time in 21 years.
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When you put that short off-the-top-of-my-head list together with the swelling baggage that accompanies any long-term government, describing the coming months as challenging could be putting it too politely.
Andrews' political skills have become legendary, as has his reputation for control and centralised power in his office.
That absence after this week is about to make for some very interesting times on Spring Street.
