A pre-election pledge to train an army of apprentices to secure Victoria’s future is seemingly close to Jacinta Allan’s heart.
That though has not stopped the opposition going for the jugular.
Proposing on Saturday an academy offering 2000 electrical trades positions over the next four years, the premier recounted the story of her father Peter.
He was a linesman at the State Electricity Commission but lost his job when Jeff Kennett’s Liberal government privatised the utility in the 1990s.
“The SEC was a skilled job for life – then the Liberals got elected,” Ms Allan told Labor’s state conference in Melbourne.
“Workers were cut and it was all smashed in a heartbeat.
“Kennett didn’t respect the lineys and sparkies, he didn’t rate them. He saw them as expenses, not people.”
Not just the man in the anecdote, Mr Allan was also by his daughter’s side.
Under the plan, the SEC, which was revived by Daniel Andrews in 2023, would become the largest employer of electrical apprentices in Victoria.
The first intake would begin just weeks after November’s state election, in January 2027, and more than a third of the jobs they would fill would be in Victoria’s regions.
However, the proposal has gone down like a lead balloon with Liberal energy and resources spokesman David Davis.
“Before the last election, Labor promised the SEC would support 59,000 jobs and deliver lower energy prices,” he countered in a statement.
“In the four years since, the SEC has failed to deliver a single new electricity generation project.”
At the same time, Melbourne electricity prices have surged and a promised SEC retail service has not materialised.
“The SEC is a fraud that has not delivered,” Mr Davis said.
Also staging the Liberal state council at Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday, would-be premier Jess Wilson promised to direct 25 per cent of new infrastructure spending to regional projects.
“We need every single person in this room wholly focused on the campaign,” she told the party faithful.
“Not spending time in meetings but knocking on doors, letter boxing, talking to voters and everything in between.”
Recent polls indicate the coalition holds a slight edge on a two-party-preferred basis as support for One Nation rises.
Ms Wilson also leads Ms Allan as preferred premier.
Overall, though, the opposition has a mountain to climb, needing a net gain of 16 seats to form a majority and end 12 years of Labor rule.
