Former umbrella importer Michael Kapel is fighting an apparently successful rear-guard action to hang on to his Chief of Staff job to incoming Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu.
There is extensive chatter though still about the position with Petro Georgiou still rumoured by some to be considering taking it. Others say party director and healer Tony Nutt would be a better choice.
Kapel is considered to be keen on lobbying and would be in a very strong position to do that having won the unwinnable poll. But he’s making it clear, he’s not being squeezed out, while Kapel is considered a divisive figure in party circles, his reputation has been greatly enchanced – as it often is – by simply winning.
Some believe that Baillieu is considering immediately axing the head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet Helen Silver – a John Brumby acolyte and close former NAB colleague of Brumby COS Dan O’Brien – and replacing her with Petro Georgiou so he can embark on a review of the public service which many Liberals believe is dominated by Greens voters, lefties and those with “alternate lifestylesâ€. While Petro might have some sympathy for these chaps on human rights issues, he would be an effective pursuer of those who would disagree with many Liberal policies and ensure the public service was on board.
The head of Treasury and Finance Grant Hehir, also a dinner-party lefty and one-time campus socialist, was all but publicly warned by incoming Treasurer Kim Wells to get with the programme or get out. It was an unsubtle effort and reflects the Libs desire to make sure everyone realises that a changing of the guard has occurred.
Jim Betts at the Department of Transport was thought to be so hopeless as to be deserving to be the first candidate for euthanasia under a Greens party plan to kill frail befuddled oldies.
They would do well to remember an anecdote one Labor right-winger in Brunswick once told VEXNEWS that when he was handing out HTVs at the federal election at his local booth, the Greens party volunteer was chatting with the GetUp! volunteer both effectively urging a vote for the Greens and both chatting up a storm.
At one point the Green said to the GetUp, “I really think I know you from somewhere†and Ms GetUp responded, “Yeah, where do you work?†and the Green said “DPC (Department of Premier and Cabinet) and GetUp said “Yeh, me too. What section?†And so on.
The bloke telling us the story had more chance of walking on the moon than scoring a job at DPC. Labor was not very good at putting party people into the public service, it had a strong aversion to The Age tut-tutting about it but that didn’t stop a rampaging cultural leftism in the public service that will be Ted Baillieu’s first serious challenge. Many of the public service regarded Brumby as horribly right-wing and most Labor moderate staffers as a menace to be obstructed, avoided and – at best – placated. It will be amusing to see how the deal with right-wing hard-head ministers like Robert Clark, Michael O’Brien and upper house leadership aspirant Matthew Guy.
Even though there’s a whole Department of Sustainability and Environment, for example, in the Department of Premier there is an Office of Climate Change with dozens of very well paid staff churning through millions a year. Efforts by Labor patriots to abolish the thing were unsuccessful. Perhaps retro Petro will have more luck. DSE itself is regarded also as a law unto itself, stacked to the rafters with vegan Greens and nasty nay-saying leftistes.
Get to work Red Ted, you have defeated Labor but now the real enemy awaits you.
VEXNEWS (Archive) 
“I can meet you some day
in a cafe on Lygon Street
we can drink cappuccinos
and talk over old times
to prove we were right
old lovers can be friends.
We gave so much, I wish
we could have given more
I am envious of you now
as I return to my security
and you move on, with him
to new experiences in love.”
Bruce Norman Atkinson, “Just Friends Now” from Bruce Norman Atkinson, “Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea” (Jared Publishing, Donvale) 1994, pg 77.
On today’s lunch menu is:
tofu goat’s cheese;
lentils boiled;
soy skinny latte;
fruit scones;
alfalfa sprouts with bean chutes on whole wheaten bread.
Welcome to the public service.
My dear Bruce, the dearest of dear Bruces
I am a very very busy and a very very important man here in San Francisco because I have a very very essential job to do. But I just had to stop the very very important work I was doing and read your poetry, and I must confess, it made me weep. Its beauty and splendour was just too much for this gentle soul. Those words you use – “we can drink cappuccinos and talk over old times” – are just so beautiful, makes me think of the afternoon soy chai lattes I shared with Honeypot on Bourke Street before we went into the house and voted in favour of the Charter of Rights, and I wonder whether someone like Yeats could ever utter such romantic and wonderful lines. Then, when you say “I am envious of you now”, it strikes a chord, because I know exactly what you mean, it is exactly how I felt when you came up with ingenious claim to have been conducting parliamentary research. You know what I mean. I miss you. I know Fatty Doyle wont like it, but you should come to lunch with us.
Why don’t just shoot all these lefties? Worked for Pol Pot? I mean, obviously your stupid little state is full of these radical people who like a frothy milk coffee (traitors), and maybe don’t eat dead animal (aliens) so who not just strangle them to death, or burn them at the stake.
Too right!
DSE is under the spell of those who believe climate change is a religion, and they pursue their goals relentlessly regardless of cost to the community or need.
No measure short of putting the staff responsible for the monstrosity that was the Climate Change White Paper firmly under the thumb of DTF or another more patriotic Department will stop them!
We can also only hope the days of highly paid consultants sprinkling economic fairy dust over their crackpot proposals to get the RISs past VCEC are over.
muffled noise
Better dust off the old ‘Victoria on the Move’ badge …
Of course DSE is full of pinko lefties. It attracts those kinds of people to work there, so what else do you expect?
A couple of public executions and they will fall into line quicker than you can say “conga line of liberal arse lickers”.
Dear “Publc servants collective”. You cannot spell or punctuate. But more to the point, are you against the “pinko” because you’ve never seen anything ‘pink’ in your life? It’s more fun than the palm, or so my male lefty intellectual soy drinking stud master toy boys tell me.
It is better to work through each issue one at a time calmly without this unintelligent cry of ‘this is left’ or ‘this is right’ ( although many of you jokers here rarely talk about the ‘right’).
The reason the ‘Greens’ are so popular is that they have appealed to the justice in people regarding mining tax, industrial relations. They do of course have an abhorrent agenda on life issues.
The neo-liberal economics of Coalition governments is obviously part of the ALP governments too (sad to see and sad to say). Sad to see some DLP people only being in that party for the morals holy roller networking and shit rather than challenging the Greens by adopting trade union core policies.
There is a lesson here for the ALP and DLP whom I think morally could improve if they returned to the Jack Lang and Chifley basics on socialisation.
The rest of these ‘left’ this and ‘left’ that talk on VexNews is just so much university set wankery.
Q. How do you make a marginal Labor seat?
A. Give Colin Brooks a safe one.
“Department of Sustainability and Environment”. Priority No. 1 – rename it ‘Department of Government Lands Management’ and have a giant purge of all the sustainability and enviro hippies.
Why stop with a purge Walter Plinge? Why not find how they voted and if it was Green or Labor, have their children decapitated, and if they don’t have kids, remove their ovaries with garden implements.
Run them out of town, pillage the dogs, burn their houses and tattoo them with numbers. That’ll teach them to hold different views, the stnuc.
So who has the goss on Luke Donnellan?
Tony Nutt would have the skills for the role of COS but the premier is probably best served with him working within the party to get the conservatives to shut the hell up so Ted can get on with the role of governing.
Petro has the appropriate touch to get the best out of the current batch of public servants. Hopefully he can clear out the labor sympathisers and sycophants (to whomever is in government) so we can see some positive change in Victoria.
Personally I hope the ALP uses the next two terms in opposition to sort itself out and reconnect with its roots so it can present a viable alternative by the time Ted is finally knifed. Its important that we have someone in power who can make the most of the free publicity when we host the world cup in 2022.
What is Labor all about?In the west,no pre-selection,put all no hopers back in,bring them down from NSW and everwhere else,Never any FEA meetings,Branches stacked to the rafters,but not enough Members for a quorum if any branch meetings at all,active Members leaving the Party because it is stuffed and that makes the ALP a beached Whale with nowhere to go.Hope that those on top wake up and put some life back into the Party.
DPI Secretary Richard Bolt might be advised to start reading his brothers blog.
Dear God…His CV contains such misnomers as “sustainable development”, “emissions trading”, “renewable energy” and “animal welfare”!
http://new.dpi.vic.gov.au/about-us/department-overview/our-structure/richard-bolt
Who’s fucked – Â
Rebecca Falkingham – ex-Brumby/Bracks/Delahunty staffer. Thwaites acolyte. Â Played a fierce game running office of climate change in DPC which has ruffled political and public service feathers. Â A lot of people clamouring for a Sadam Hussein style public hanging. Â
Rod Glover/Pradeep Philip – ex Rudd staffers who are Deputy Sectetaries in DPC. Glover positions himself as Blairite unorthodox thinker on the economy and engaging with the community. Â Even in a politically supportive environment was able to get traction on his ideas. Â Phillip, on the other hand has kept his head down and tried to reposition himself as a can do fixer. Â Consensus view is that he’s struggled with the workload and was likely to be sent to do some ‘special projects’ irrespective of the outcome.
Xavier Csar: ex-Brumby staffer who rejoined the public service in 2008.  Has been Brumby’s man on the inside of  DIIRD and played a pretty political game which has raised eyebrows.  Moved to become A/g CEO of Regional Development Victoria (the most political role in the public service – think Dan O’Brien).  Position now seen as untenable.
Richard Bolt: Â Some none too subtle criticism from the Nats in their Agriculture Policy announcement that the leadership of DPI will have practical farming/country experience. Â Seen as a bit of a slap to Andrew Bolt’s brother, who is known within as an advocate of big energy and not much else. Not seen as the man likely to take on the bigger, more important DPI envisaged by the Nats.
Jim Betts is totally fucked.Â
yehudi blacher head of planning and development. Was completely fucked. Has to be now. Retire old man. Planning a disaster
Let’s creat a list.
Lyn Wannan – nonprofit area of community development
Yehudi blacher. Head of planning. Disaster for last twenty five years in public service. Survivor but will not survive this one
Helen silver. Will keep for three months to do a brain dump and then axe. Inside libs say we don’t have a list as we didn’t think we’d win. List now started
Great. Will pass around my colleagues in public service. Andrew this will be the most visited site for every public servant. And new lib staffers. I hope your site can withstand the traffic
Whole Dept of community development to be axed
Dept of sustainability renamed and halved in size
Jim Betts – day one will go
Oh MY God – all the lesbians out of work – axed and with no prospects
Lily – you’re too ugly to be a lesbian – but I hear Joel Monaghan wants your phone number!
How refreshing is it to think of all those hairy armpitted women in DHS,DSE & C.C.panicking through the corridors hoping to hang on to their cushiony jobs.The day of reckoning is nigh!
Why doesnt Wendy stop trying to “pump” me every day and night!
Andy, you should be lucky to find a woman, with or without underarm hair. I can only picture your ‘woman’ did well during Movember!! LOL.
This is a stupid article – with copious unsubstantiated and misleading comments. For example, I work in the VPS and I vote Liberal.
Kim Wells new COS is Julie Novak.
http://www.ipa.org.au/people/julie-novak
A dyke alright and a right winger to bbot
Is Peter Harris still head of DSE? He’s actually not too bad compared to that Lindsay whatshisface bloke before him.
not only p/s stuffed. watch “independent” orgs that snuggled up to bracks and brumby.
Novak will be the brains AND the looks in that partnership. At least she’s not a bone-lazy, thrombotic seat warmer like her Minister.
Why was Wells so invisible during the election campaign? He was trying to distance himself from Bailleau in expectation of a Liberal loss, after which he had visions of assuming the leadership.
I have grave reservations about his ability to perform as Treasurer.
Isn’t it awesome to get such a clean view of the mindset of a Lefty? Wendy is suggesting all the things she herself would see done in the Liberal’s position.
who has list of Parl Secs
Everybody should get on and start bagging the Labor party at least you won’t get any nasty feedback, but start bagging the Kennett government look out we take great offence to that and everyone would agree with me on that one. The Liberal party don’t deserve to get blammed.
The result in Mt Waverley was disgraceful
Wow DSE may now come unstuck for their big “Sam the koala” fraud.
Recall the drinking Koala.
It was a fake – the real deal was a bottle fed male brought into the forest for the set-up.
DSE is now wasting millions on a battery of lawyers to stop the story coming out and the libs are onto the case!
Watch this space!
For the heads up go to:
http://www.smuggled.com/Koala_Sam_Is_A_Fake_An_Imposter_and_Fraud.htm
It’ll blow your mind!
Dept.Sustainability. 50% of pen pushers can start to check out seek.com There’s gunna be a purge of these leftists.
what about Freja whatshername in DHS?
1. lesbian
2. spinner-in-chief
3. oh, and Joolia’s CoS Amanda Lampe’s partner
Surely, on the above three grounds, she is number 1 for the axe?
That Sunday Age article a few weeks ago detailing public servants and board positions will be the first lot of Victorians On The Move…. moving right out of those positions until Labor is re-elected.
Ted you have given me another tear back there.
Sotherby, I thought you already had a big tear – maybe have a look behind you …
lol
please note how early Leisurely Treasury is in at work, ready, willing, able to serve our new masters and of course not wanting to miss seeing the demise of Grant Hehir. Will the open door access regime continue between the
Secretary’s office into the Treasurer’s office? (a nice little green-painted side door whose access list the new Treasurer may wish to review). Who will put any money on Tony Bates or any of the Budget team (very cosy with previous Treasurer’s office), as opposed to Penelope McKay who is wife of John Roskam? Long days ahead at DTF so as not to miss out on any of the action.
Dear Mac@7:57, that Sunday Age article didn’t even begin to cover the board positions. Federation Square board has Senator David Feeney’s wife Liberty Sanger. The Superannuation Boards including the VFMC are stacked chock-full of Laborites. Vicurban’s also a good one. And have a look at State Trustees – isn’t that Josh Bornstein of the Webb Dock dispute?
All of that without even thinking. I’m sure someone in DPC can make up one of the Department’s famed charts, pointing out who’s who, and how the dots connect (maybe that’s how Ms Silver can start to prove her loyalty to the new Premier).
All pretty gloomy at my Chrissie drinks last night. None of the usual Joshing around…
Wendy that sound constantly chasing you is your mutant green flaps dragging on the floor as you reach for another 10 seconds of pleasure from the cactus
If you are getting rid of ALP appointments better get Robert Doyle off the hospital board he is on.
The reason there are always more ALP linked people on govt boards and in the public sector is that they actually BELIEVE in public service and rarely fuck off to the private sector to make a fortune.
In reality being ALP linked means you end up with LESS opportunities not more because of your association.
You also get sledged for taking a middle paying job or giving your time freely to the many boards that pay nothing to those who give up their time because they give a shit.
Hey Penny Pusher – I had no idea being a lesbian was a grounds for dismissal.
Better tell Kim Wells new COS that.
The attacks on sexuality on this blog are something you’d expect from One Nation supporters.
If, instead of slagging gay women in a steroetypical way (hairy legged) people slammed Jews (big noses) Andrew you’d be culling the comments for the hatred they espouse.
Poor Sotherby really just can’t cut the mustard, can he? Just admit that you are intellectually, morally and political inferior (and no doubt also in the package department). Take lessons if you want to compete with the mighty Wendy. 2/10 for your pathetic silly childish attempts. Your are a nothing compared with my barbs and repartee.
So how did the Greens go last weekend?
I am really torn back there I am going to need a stitch
Mother why
Emergency Services, another stable that needs cleaning.
Another day another rectal rip from Brutus, I’ve got more rips than a surf beach
well reading that pile of crap was five minutes of my life I’ll never get back
Most what i read online is trash and copy paste but i think you offer something different. Keep it like this.