Fear and Loathing in Victoria: the 28 November 2026 State Election

Candid Conversation with Prof Paul Strangio

Hosted by Prof Vin Massaro

November’s state election looms as the most volatile and rancorous in modern political times in Victoria. New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll is seeking to steer Labor to an unprecedented fourth of government but battling against widespread perceptions of economic mismanagement and the flourishing of corrupt practices on the state’s major infrastructure projects. The opposition leader, the inexperienced Jess Wilson, has the challenge of not only winning an additional 17 seats for the Coalition but proving the Liberal Party’s fitness for office following years of bitter internal ideological and personal animosities. It is climate in which minor parties, especially One Nation, and independents are forecast to prosper injecting a high degree of unpredictability into the election result and the composition of the state’s next government. 

In this presentation, Paul Strangio will seek to make sense of the election contest in the context of Victoria’s political history and the contemporary forces roiling global, national and state politics.

Paul Strangio is an emeritus professor of politics at Monash University. He is an award winning author and editor of more than a dozen books on Australian politics. A specialist on political leadership, his most recent book is The Alchemy of Leadership: Seven Australian Prime Ministers in a Turbulent Twenty-first Century, (Melbourne University Press, 2026).  
 

Please join Paul as he cuts through the noise to examine the trends, tensions and turning points shaping Victoria's pivotal state election.