The new Premier of Victoria, Ben Carroll, arrived with a line built for the evening news: in my government, integrity will not be optional. Jeremy Cordeaux heard it — and, on this Garage edition of the Court of Public Opinion, took it apart word by word.
A Line That Backfires
Jeremy’s first objection was almost grammatical, but devastating. What Carroll should have said, he argued, is that integrity will not be negotiable. To say it won’t be “optional” carries an awkward implication — that until now, it was.
And that’s the trap he walked into. If integrity will not be optional in his government, what does that say about the last one — the government in which Carroll himself served as Deputy Premier? By his own phrasing, Jeremy suggested, he’s conceded that integrity was optional under Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan.
The Deputy Can’t Disown It
That inconvenient history is what Jeremy kept pressing. Carroll has been busy distancing himself — I’m not Dan Andrews, I’m not Jacinta Allan — but nobody said he was. The problem is that he wasn’t a bystander. He was the Deputy Premier, part of the cabinet, party to the decisions.
You cannot, Jeremy argued, claim to have suddenly discovered integrity while standing on a record you helped create. Carroll can’t credibly present himself as the clean break when he was second-in-charge of the very government he’s now implicitly criticising.
Survival, Not Virtue
What Carroll has really discovered, Jeremy suggested, isn’t integrity — it’s the need for political survival. The fresh talk of standards reads less as principle than as a government trying to save the furniture before an election.
He noted the promise Carroll made to Jacinta Allan’s face — that he wouldn’t challenge her — and how quickly that changed. “I changed my position,” Jeremy mimicked, hearing echoes of Anthony Albanese’s own defence: I didn’t lie, I just changed my position. To Jeremy, that doesn’t wash.
Where Was The Journalist?
His recurring frustration surfaced again: the absence of anyone willing to ask the obvious question. Thank God, he said wryly, there wasn’t a smart journalist there to ask Carroll whether he’d suddenly discovered integrity — because the glib line would have crumbled on the follow-up.
For Jeremy, the whole episode was a lesson in how a focus-grouped soundbite can betray its speaker. Reach for a phrase like “integrity will not be optional,” and a moment’s scrutiny turns it into an admission.
Listen To The Full Episode
Catch the complete Garage edition of The Court of Public Opinion, recorded live around the dining room table.
Watch The Full Episode
The Court of Public Opinion streams live every Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ACST), right here at jeremycordeaux.com. Download the podcast anytime on your favourite podcast app, and join the conversation with your calls and comments.
