On his first afternoon as premier, Carroll stood at a media podium inside Parliament House and delivered a declaration explicitly designed to draw that line. “This state election was looming as a referendum on the question: ‘Are you dirty with the state of politics in Victoria?’ But he’s capable of being a very good state leader.” Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now the vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra. Anxious though he may be to separate himself from Andrews and Allan, Carroll cannot shrug off the state’s record debt.